War Cries
by Aussie
Summary: Sequel to Post Grave. What happens at the end of the World? What do our beloved characters do? Run? Fight? Hide? Does the end always justify the means? How far are the Buffy Gang ready to go to save the world? Find out and read this story!
1. Prologue

Prologue

__

Vampires. Vampires. More Vampires. That's all she could see, just vampires, and one person standing between them and the world: her. That couldn't be right. That wasn't her job. It was her job to help out with the Slaying, and screw things up. Not stop hordes and hordes of Vampires from overtaking the world. She wasn't able to do that, no living person was able to do that, well, except Buffy. She looked around, but couldn't see the small blonde girl, she just saw more vampires. Every fibre of her being was screaming at her that it wasn't right for her to be there. Suddenly, the vampires came at her with full force, and she was wondering how long it would take for her to die. Minutes? Seconds? Microseconds? She didn't even know where that thought had come from, Microseconds? She didn't even know what that was, yet, she was thinking it. She began to fight, but she didn't know how she was fighting. She didn't know how to fight, but yet here she was, fighting like there was no tomorrow, which she knew, for her, was true. She was fighting with amazing speed and strength, which she didn't know where she had gotten from. Sure, she knew that she was a Slayer, or at least now, part Slayer, but she was never able to fight like this. Then, without even knowing what she was doing, she reached out her hand and the vampires flew back with more force that she had ever seen. She didn't even know if she'd be able to harness the power capable of doing that without sending her off the deep end, again. She didn't want to kill anyone, but as she looked around between punches and kicks, she saw that there was no one around her, literally. The vampires had gone, and there was no one, and this terrified her more than she had ever let on. For her whole life, she had struggled to keep in good contact with people, keep her friends, but that had never worked out well. Just look at what happened in Sunnydale. She had gone and killed people, and they had ultimately rejected her. It was that simple, and now, here she was, in the middle of no where. Everything was black, and she could feel it tightening around her. She could feel it trying to reach the own blackness inside of her, and she couldn't let it, no matter what happened, she couldn't let it.

Willow shot up out of bed, looking around panicked. She looked over at the clock, and it read 9:56. Willow got up and calculated that in Sunnydale it would be around 3:56 in the morning (not sure, just making up the time difference, you need to know the time! Remember the time, no matter what you do in this Prologue!). She was just keeping tabs on what it would be like back home, if she was there. She was awfully homesick. She walked over to Samantha and Montague and looked at them. She needed to know whether they were telling her the truth or not, and she had no idea how to find out. She couldn't try any more spells, they were just too dangerous. Frustrated, she sat on her bed and looked at the sleeping figures of Giles and Cassia. 

Faith leapt up off the ground from under her blankets, instantly in a fighting stance. It took her a while to realise where she was. She was in Anne's shelter for the homeless kids. Events from that night started making their way back into her memory. She had gone to the docks for some slaying, and then chased the kid, or whatever he was, Connor up into the city where she met Gun and the girl, where they told her that Angel was missing. She looked at the clock and it said 3:57.

"Great," Faith said under her breath, after remembering the whole reason she wasn't in prison in the first place. Angel was missing, which meant there was no one to help her with her little problem of the Watchers' Council trying to kill her, which she hadn't seen any proof of yet. 

"Do you always look to pummel someone when you get out of bed?" she heard. She turned and looked around to see a short man dressed in a long jacket. He had a thick 'mobster' type accent. 

"Just when there's short little men in the room while I'm sleeping," Faith replied. "You're too old to be in here for the shelter. And by the way you're dressed, you're too rich too… who are you?" Faith demanded, raising her fists. 

"Don't worry sweetie, I'm not here to hurt you," he said. 

"Really, I don't believe that," Faith said. She knew that this man might be from the Watchers Council, he kind of looked like it.

"What do you want?" Faith demanded. She knew that she was getting on edge and that she was going to pummel this guy if he didn't give straight answers. Strangely enough, a little voice entered her head and told her that that wasn't the way to go. That she shouldn't do that, that it was 'wrong'. She eased her stance a bit, but not too much. There was something off about this character, and she didn't know what. 

"I was looking for you actually," he said. "Anyway, you can't hurt me," he added. 

"Oh, and why's that?" Faith responds arrogantly. "Is it because I'm a girl," She said sarcastically. She knew that this figure in front of her probably knew who she was. 

"Go ahead, take a swing," the figure said. Faith couldn't believe her luck. She swung at the figure, and her fist passed straight through it. Faith and the man stood off for a couple of moments.

"What are you, a ghost or something?" Faith asked. The shorter man walked up to her and looked into her eyes. 

"The name's Whistler. I'm your guide," Whistler said. 

"Hey? You're going to have to explain this to me, fast. I want some sleep," Faith said. "And I'll be grumpy in the morning if I don't get sleep."

"What? Grumpier?" Whistler replied. He just got a glare from Faith. "Okay, okay. I was sent by a higher power to be your guide… help you out and all."

"Why should I believe you?" Faith interrogated. 

"I'm here to make sure you don't get gutted kid. There are all sorts of big nasties out to get you now, plus the Watchers' Council… I'd think you'd get all the help you can get kiddo," Whistler replied. Faith just looked at him, still not buying it. She finally gave in.

"Okay, fine, whatever. Just let me get back to sleep," she said. 

"Right kid. Just remember, I'm here to help. Just give me a call when you need me," he said while walking into the darkest part of the room. Faith just looked at him, but then there was no movement. He'd disappeared. Faith just collapsed back onto the blankets she'd been under, not bothering to put them back over her.

Buffy had awoke from her dream a couple of hours ago and was now in the kitchen with a warm cup of coffee in her hand. The dream had shaken her up, a lot. She knew that it was a Slayer dream because she could remember most of the details, which usually happened with dreams that held a high significance. She had also written it out in a dream journal after she had woken up, making sure she wouldn't distort the details. She didn't know what it meant. Usually there was an underlying message in the dream, something that wasn't clear, and she couldn't figure out what it was. It was times like these that she missed Giles and his knowledge and interpretation skills. 

She also wanted to know more about what she had seen earlier that night, the three tall hooded figures which had scared her more than she had ever thought she would be scared. They were extremely powerful and skilled with weapons, and Buffy knew who would come out on top in a fight between her and them. Sighing, Buffy put the coffee down and went back up to bed, knowing that staying awake and trying to go through things in her mind wouldn't get her very far. 

Rhon was inside a large crypt, helping six others of his kind guard something within from the Slayer. They weren't told what it was, only that they had to guard it, and never to try and open the sarcophagus that was inside, or they'd all be killed. He knew that there was a small chance of the Slayer coming down to the crypt, but they were ordered to guard it none the less. He was proud, he was a part of the bigger plan, or so it told them. 

Before any of them knew what was happening, the door to the crypt flew off its hinges towards the group of vampires. Three crossbow bolts came through the doorway before the dust could settle and hit the hearts of three vampires, all of them turning to dust. Rhon ran and put his back to the wall, beside the doorway. He saw one of the others do the same on the other side of the doorway. The third remaining vampire turned to dust from something Rhon didn't see. They both stood there, guarding the doorway against whatever was going to come in. Rhon knew that the Slayer had finally come, and he knew that his short un-life was probably going to be over, but he was going to take down as many of the Slayer's cohorts as possible.

They waited, but nothing came through the passage where the door once was. Rhon could see that the other remaining vampire was getting restless. He knew that that was the plan of whatever was outside, lure them out. Before Rhon could even blink, a large dark figure came into the crypt with a short sword extended, cutting off the other vampire's head. Rhon saw it coming, and ducked out of the way and punched where this thing's mid section would be, but he didn't hit anything. Before he knew what was happening, a blade was sticking out through his chest. One of the things had stabbed him through the back when he had crouched down. He saw the other sword coming, but didn't have enough time to duck out of the way as it sliced through his neck, turning him to dust. 


	2. Chapter 1 Subtle Revelations

Thanks for the reviews…. The only reason why I interrupted the narative with the times, is because I absoloutely needed people to take notice of the time there, so when the story comes to an end, they can go back and see HOW a certain thing came to happen, and they can say "ohh, will you look at that". 

I should be updating more frequently than I have been for Post Grave, well, I hope so anyway. Here's the next chapter

Chapter 1

There was blood everywhere in the cavern. The dead watcher lay on the ground with his limbs at odd angles. It didn't look like he'd died an easy death. There was nothing around except a figure in a red hooded robe, who was clearing up after the ritual. Two _mòping_ were laying on the ground next to a circular platform raised half a foot off of the bottom of the cavern floor. The two _mòping _had a ball of yellowish energy inside each of them. The figure in red robes picked up the body of the dead Watcher and carried him outside to where there was a red Ford Ute, with a shovel in the back. The sky was cloudless and all the stars beamed down strongly on the desert floor. The figure dumped the body on the ground and went to get the shovel but was stopped as a voice called from the shadows. 

"Good job. I see you have the two _mòping_. You must guard them with your life," the voice said. A figure stepped out of the shadows on the entrance of the cavern. 

"Now why should I do that?" the robed figure replied while taking off the red robes, revealing tight clothing underneath. The girl was of an average build and, normally, had brown eyes and hair, but now they were black, from too much usage of black magick. She spoke with a sharp voice as she challenged the figure. The figure stepped out of the shadows. He had a long scar across his eye and shoulder length hair. 

"Amy, Amy, Amy. You know you're my favourite. You know that I'll give you power beyond anything that you can conceive. You only have to do these simple things for me, because, as you know, I can't," Rack said as he put his hand through a nearby boulder. "Being incorporeal and all." Amy Madison just stood there, appearing to be lost in thought.

"Fine, whatever. Just as long as I get the power," Amy replied. 

"Good, there's my girl," Rack said before disappearing. Amy stormed back inside the cavern and reached out her hand. The two _mòping_ came flying towards her, where she grabbed them out of the air and carried them to the Ute. She got in and started the engine.

"He'll get what's coming to him, and so will that bitch of his," Amy muttered under her breath before speeding off into the desert. 

Gunn walked into the Hyperion Hotel carrying the paper and a couple of groceries. It was mid-morning, and he, Fred and Connor had stayed up all night trying to help keep the vampire population down as well as look for Cordelia and Angel. That was until they had run into the Slayer chick; Faith. They didn't know what to think about what she had told them. They didn't know Faith at all, and they really needed Angel to help them. At least he'd be able to tell if Faith was lying or not. They decided to let her go, half hoping that she was telling the truth about the Council coming to kill her, half not. That night, Gunn had thought about what it would be like to be a Slayer, and he didn't want any of it. He'd heard the stories Angel had told them all, and after Faith's little story last night, the super powers weren't worth it. He didn't like the whole idea of a top secret organisation hunting you down just because you've worn out your expiry date. He put the groceries on the front desk and unfolded the newspaper. Gunn saw Fred coming down the stairs, obviously just woken up. 

"Morning," she called mid way through a yawn. 

"Hey," Gunn called back across the foyer. He started to read the front page of the newspaper. Fred was coming over to him. "Damn. Think we were in the wrong part of town last night," Gunn said. 

"Hmm? Hey? Why's that?" Fred inquired, half asleep. 

"Look here. It says that the entire crew of the _White Celeste_ was found dead this morning on their boat which was just drifting in the harbour. They all have neck wounds, which means vampires," Gunn explained from the paper.

"Oh," was all Fred could say in reply. She saw Gunn's distress that they'd missed the vampires that had done the damage. "We can't get them all you know… last night, we did well. We got about five of them," Fred said. "And who knows how many Connor got." 

"I know. You just can't help but feel like you could have done something more. We know what did this, and hardly anybody else does," Gunn said. 

"If it makes you feel better, we'll go down and have a look after breakfast," Fred said reassuringly. 

Across the town, someone else was looking at the same newspaper report, and they weren't going to wait to go and investigate. Grabbing his coat, Wesley went out the door to his apartment, heading straight for the docks. He wanted to make up for what he'd done in the past, and this was how he was going to start. 

Cassia didn't like being here, not one bit. Here she was in a room, with two people who had been her mentors for a large part of her life revealing that they weren't all they seemed to be; that they were holding information back, and that they could be working for the forces of darkness. She didn't believe what Samantha and Montague were telling Willow and Giles, she could see it in their eyes that they were lying. It was that simple. Willow was pacing around the magickal barrier that now held Samantha and Montague. Cassia couldn't understand, Willow was fine with her magicks now. She could sense that the way she used magick had changed, she was staying in balance. When Cassia had asked her about it, Willow had just replied that someone had made her look inside herself in a dream. What that meant, Cassia didn't know, and Willow didn't want to elaborate anything further. She looked over to Giles, who was sitting in the chair, leaning forward towards Samantha and Montague. She could see that both he and Willow were getting tired of trying to pry information out of Samantha and Montague. That didn't really matter to Cassia, as long as they got out of the cabin. That was her main concern, and she had also noted that Willow and Giles seemingly didn't seem to care about that. 

"For the last time, can you just tell us what is happening. What's coming?" Giles stressed. He was just met with blank stares from Samantha and Montague. "We're slowly starving to death! We want to get out of here! We need to know what's coming, because we'll be involved in it! For god sakes! Tell us something!" Giles burst out, again. Cassia saw that that was happening a lot, and she knew that it must be from all the stress he was under. She knew that he wanted Willow to be alright, and the events of the last couple of days didn't help that, and now he was stuck in the cabin with two people who wouldn't cooperate. 

"Surely you want to get out of here. Starving to death isn't really the way I pictured myself dying," Willow said. "I don't think its what you two pictured either." She was just met with blank stares as well. 

Willow took a deep breath and decided that she needed to go outside. She stopped pacing and looked towards the door. 

"I'm going for a walk," she said to Giles and Cassia. She could feel their confusion at what she had just said. "Around the cabin," she added. She smiled as she saw recognition go through both Giles and Cassia. She walked out the door and down the step, and when she looked up, she was surprised to see most of the coven assembled outside the cabin, all looking at her. In the front were Clifford, James and Michael, all standing up to the barrier, looking at Willow. Willow walked up to the barrier and put her hands to it. She could now feel the power of the barrier and where it was coming from, but she was afraid to try and do anything about it. She heard Michael say something, but couldn't understand it. The barrier distorted what he was saying into unintelligible sounds. 

Willow thought about the dream she had had just a few hours ago. She didn't want to think about it, all those Vampires. She figured that she didn't even have to think about it, but something inside her said that she must. She got a bit frustrated with everything that was happening, and how she was feeling. She was holding herself together now. The earlier dream had helped with that, as well as the pressure of finding out what Samantha and Montague knew, it was a very good distraction to keep her mind off of… other things. She decided that she'd try Samantha and Montague again, and hopefully this time they'd cooperate. 

The executives of the Watchers Council of Sweden, located in Västerås, were all assembled in a large conference room. They were discussing the current issues of their operatives going missing, and were getting reports from England that operatives all over the world were turning up dead, and all their assignments were failing. 

"What about Queen Harishmen, wasn't she brought in?" one of the men asked. Unlike their British counterparts, the Swedish Watchers dressed in modern clothes. 

"The reports say that she was brought in, but it seems that she vanished into thin air, and the operative, Harmond Normanby, turned up dead at the docks, where he was to capture and bring in Queen Harishmen. We needed her help," another man said. 

"What is the price of the failure of this mission," the leading executive asked. 

"Queen Harishmen didn't like the current vampire organisation of Sweden. She was to lead a revolt of vampires against those ruling. We don't know why, or how, but we thought that her cooperation could have been very crucial. Now that she is dead, word says that the vampire revolt is fading away, as they don't have a leader," one of the ladies said. Just then, the executive's secretary entered the room carrying a small bundle of papers. She whispered in the executive's ear and left the room. The lead executive looked at the pieces of paper he was holding in his hand and then looked around to everyone in the room. 

"Men, listen. This just came in from England. Our orders are to mobilise every operative we have, now, and start killing vampires and demons. It seems that England has worked out that something is organising vampires and demons world wide, and we can only guess that this organisation is the same that is killing our operatives. Orders from England are to minimise the threat as soon as possible. They say that it looks like the largest possible threat to human kind from the supernatural world since the dark ages," the lead executive said. 

In the blink of an eye, a loud bang echoed throughout the building. In the space of three minutes, the doors to the conference room were kicked in and crossbow bolts were flying as vampires, all armed with crossbows invaded the building and killed all the executives. Organising the battle was a large figure, draped in dark hooded robes, standing at least a foot taller than most people, and the sight of them swept pure fear into the hearts of all those people who lived long enough to come across it before they died. 

The tall cloaked creature walked over to the corpse of the lead executive and knelt down and placed it's gloved palm onto his chest. It stood up, and slowly, features of the lead executive formed on the creature, until there was no possible way to tell the difference between the corpse on the ground, and the figure standing; except that one of them was dead and the other wasn't. 

In another part of the world, she was crouched inside a box, fear emanating throughout her entire being. She had no idea where she was, why she was here, or who the person was that was standing outside the small box that she was confined in. 

"Welcome back… again… Darla," Lilah Morgan said. 

Wesley ducked under the police tape stopping entrance to the pontoon that the _White Celeste_ was moored to. There were police officers swarming all over the scene, and when asked what he was doing, Wesley just flashed his wallet saying that he was a private investigator who was hired by the family of one of the victims to look into the tragedy. 

He climbed aboard the boat, and unfortunately, for him, the police had removed the bodies already. But he could see where they were by the white chalk outline of them on the deck of the boat. 

He moved around the ship, looking for any clue that he could find at all, to lead to anything. Most of all, he was just here because something inside him had told him that he had to be here, looking, doing this. He had found clues of the signs of a struggle, and he saw indentations in the side of the boat. He only guessed that the boat had either run into another boat or a large rock, or that something of great strength had climbed aboard. 

He was just about to finish up, when he saw a white card on the floor. It was soggy, meaning that it had been submerged in water for a long time. He picked it up and looked at it, and was very surprised to see the words "Angel Investigations" written on it. His mind filled in the blanks and he guessed that Gunn, Fred and Connor had been down already and must have dropped it. 

He was walking away from the crime scene, when he saw Gunn and Fred approaching. He walked up to them, knowing that they probably didn't want him around. 

"You should be more careful in the future," he said to them while holding up the card. 

"Hey? What are you talking about Wes?" Gunn asked. 

"I found this on the boat, you must have dropped it while you were looking around," Wesley said. "The police could think that maybe you had some sort of involvement in the crime."

"Where'd you get that? We haven't been down here yet. We were just going to look now," Fred said. Wesley looked at them both.

"Well then, who put it there?" Gunn asked. At the same time Fred and Wesley said;

"Angel."

There was a faint dirt path going in either direction, and Spike knew that this must have been the road the driver was talking about. He didn't like his cryptic talk, and now, he was dead. Spike felt right. He was feeling better than he had been in years. He was feeling like his old self again, and nothing was going to get in his way this time, not anything, not anyone, least of all the Slayer. The way he figured things would go was that as soon as Spike knew where he was, he'd get a trip back to the States, and stay clear of Sunnydale. That way, the Slayer couldn't mess with his head the way she had. She wouldn't be able to turn him into a pathetic excuse for a warrior. He'd go and find Dru, and he'd get back with her, and they'd rampage throughout the countryside, just like old times. He was looking forward to getting back. Now, the only problem was which way was he to go. Spike decided he'd go left, and he started walking. 


	3. Chapter 2 Decisions

Chapter 2

Faith was sitting in the room Anne had given her. She was lucky, there wasn't anyone else in the room with her, unlike the situation in some of the other rooms. She could tell that she was in what used to be a bedroom, but was now just decked out to fit as many people as possible. She sat down and actually thought about what she was going to do. Well, that was her intention, but she found herself thinking about thinking about what she was going to do. It was then that it had dawned on her how much she had changed. She could hardly remember a time when she would sit down and think about what she was going to do. 

"Man, must show how serious this is," Faith said under her breath. Faith knew that she couldn't run from the council, and that she couldn't do anything about them until they made their move. Even then, it would be hard to do anything against them, or to convince them to stop. Not unless she agreed to do whatever they wanted her to do, to be their Slayer, but she didn't want to do that. Faith figured that as the Slayer, she had a limited number of years to live on the planet. While she was the Slayer, and somewhere between being locked up in jail and now, at this point in time, she had decided that she was going to be the Slayer, she was going to do it her way, not the Council's. Faith knew that she needed help, but she didn't know where to get it from. She thought Whistler, but something inside her told her not to trust him, no matter what. Faith wanted help from Angel, but he was missing, and she knew that his friends didn't trust her. Faith knew that she could go to Buffy, and that she _might_ help her, but she wasn't ready to go back to Sunnydale yet. Faith wondered if Buffy was going to do anything about the phone call Faith had made on her way out of prison; probably not she decided. 

Faith gave up. She flopped down onto the floor and gave up. She didn't know what to do, and she had to decide quickly. She knew that it wouldn't take the Council very long to track her down to where she was now. Sure, LA was a big city, but as far as she knew, there was only one girl in the whole city that could take out a large number of vampires in a night. She decided to take a walk, maybe that would help clear her head out a bit.

After what seemed like a day of walking, Spike had gotten no where. As he looked around, he could swear that he was in exactly the same spot that he was before. There was no change in the desert landscape he was in. His mind was tired. He wanted to know why the sun wasn't hurting him, and he wanted to know where he was, and what he was doing here. He started to regret killing the driver to the four wheeled drive, after all, maybe he'd know where to go. A thought just dawned on Spike. He didn't take the four wheeled drive. He walked instead. 

"Somebody just get me out of here!" Spike yelled. "Get me out," he yelled at the desolate surroundings. 

Spike could hear a faint rumbling in the distance, and he could hear that whatever it was, it was getting closer. He looked around him, but he couldn't see anything coming. It sounded like something was rolling across the sky. He spun around, looking. At the last minute, something caught his eye. A small part of the air in front of him was shimmering and distorting the light around it. It was growing bigger and bigger, and Spike just stood there and watched. A thunderous crack emanated from the anomaly, and it spread into a large circular 'hole'. Through the hole, he could see vampires in a large underground cavern. The image changed to a lonely sidewalk at night, with one person walking down it. 

"Great, a portal," Spike said just as he moved off towards it. It wasn't too far in front of him, only a few metres. 

An image appeared between Spike and the portal in the form of Druscilla. 

"Naughty Spike," she said while holding up her index finger towards him. 

"Dru?" Spike asked. "Is that you?" He looked closer, and realisation hit him. "It is you. I was going to come and get you… things have changed again! I feel like my old self!" he exclaimed. 

"No more Slayer for our little Spike?" Dru asked in a timid voice. 

"No more Slayer for me," Spike replied while stepping close to Druscilla. He went to lean into her, but passed right through her. He spun around to see an image of Angel standing before him. 

"What? You think it would be that easy?" he said. 

"What?" Spike asked, annoyed. "Who are you?" The image of Angel didn't answer, it just stood there looking at him. 

"What are you going to do Spike?" he said after a while. 

"What are you?" Spike asked again. Still no answer from the image of Angel. "I'll put it nice and simple for you. What. Are. You." Spike said, putting emphasis on each and every word. 

"I'm the thing that made you," The image of Angel said while morphing back to Druscilla. 

"You know what. I've figured it out. This is another one of those stupid tests! Well, I aint getting tested no more," Spike said losing his temper. He turned around and stepped through the portal, where he crashed down onto the sidewalk. He turned and looked at where the portal was, and suprisingly he could still see it.

"That one's going to be hard to tame," Druscilla said. 

____ 

Sorry about this chapter being so short, but I just do not know what to do with Spike, Xander, Dawn or Anya… I know what to do with Xander and Spike in the long run, but just not now… if anyone has any suggestions for what to do with them, email me at theonlyreece@hotmail.com 


	4. Chapter 3 Simple Revelations

Chapter 3

A red Ford ute pulled up into Sunnydale early that morning, carrying two _mòping_ and one very angry witch who had abused the power that she had and was now nothing resembling a person. She had heard of what had happened to Willow, and stupidly thought that it couldn't happen to her. After all, Willow was weak where Amy was strong. She thought that she could handle the power, but, she had thought wrong. Her constant misuse of magick had eaten away at her consciousness until there was nothing left, and once the power became too much for her, she let it control her, much like Willow had, except Amy hadn't come back. Granted, Amy knew that she wasn't as much of a threat that Willow was, not having the same amount of power, but that was going to change if she kept the two _mòping_ carrying the two vampire's souls safe and intact. She didn't know what Rack was planning, but she knew that he had power beyond of what she could conceive, he had given her a taste of that power at least a week ago, and it was what she was still running on now. He had 'merged' with her, as he called it, only for a short time. Amy still wanted to know how Rack's spirit was still in this world though, he had not told her of that and she hadn't bothered to ask him about it. 

Amy knew where she could keep the _mòping_ safe in town. There she would have to wait until Rack came back to her, so he could tell her what was needed to be done.

He watched the construction crew with a new hunger that he hadn't experienced in what felt like centuries. His earlier feast didn't do much to quell it. In the sewers, below the city of LA, he could feel something inside of him pulling him towards the men, just telling him to drink the blood from their necks. The urge was overwhelming. He didn't mind being in the sewer tunnels of LA, it didn't bother him at all, it wasn't even on his mind. The only thing that was on his mind were the three construction men ahead of him. 

He ran at them, and they saw him coming. He didn't mind, none of them would get away. Morphing into his full vampiric features, he grabbed the closest man and began to drink. He could sense the other men coming at him, but he just looked up, knowing that his vampiric features would hopefully scare them off, and they did. The men backed up and ran, leaving their partner to die. 

Hot, warm, flowing blood flooded the vampire's mouth like a crimson tide. It ran down his throat, turning his insides warm, giving colour to his face.

A voice behind him startled him, and he dropped his prey, spinning around to see who was behind him.

"Bad puppy. We've got plans for you daddy, yes we do," an image of Druscilla said. 

"Dru? What do you want? What are you doing here? How'd you find me?" the vampire asked in rapid fire. 

"Everything's coming back together again. Mummy's back, again. Daddy's back to his old self again and soon everything will fall into it's nice little place," Druscilla said while walking closer to the vampire. The vampire went to grab Druscilla's hand, but he passed right through the image of her.

"What are you?" he asked it, looking it straight in the face. 

"I'm the one that's going to make you and your's powerful beyond your wildest dreams," the image said, in perfect clarity. 

"Me and Mine?" the vampire asked. 

"Yes," the image of Druscilla said, while morphing into the form of Darla, and then Spike, and then Angelus. "Angelus. I will."

There was a long silence as Angelus looked at the image of himself. "Who do you think it was that arranged to have your soul taken away?" the image of Angelus said. "Who do you think got you out of that prison under the sea? I did… well, not me specifically, but some helpers," the image said while morphing into the image of Rack. "Yes. I have many, many allies," it said. The image of rack actually looked hurt. The image of Rack then morphed into the image of Jenny Calendar. Then into the image of one of the victims that Angel had killed, and that had shown itself in Sunnydale years ago.

"You're that thing that tried to kill me… Angel," Angelus said correcting himself. "The First."

"Yeah, that's me," the first said, now in the form of Doyle. "Took you long enough to figure it out. Must be getting slow in your old age," it said. 

"Hate to interrupt or anything… but, what exactly is it you want?" Angelus said, getting impatient. "You can't do anything to hurt me, so, you must want something ?" he asked, irritated. 

"Oh, I can do something to you, of course. That soul of yours… can have that back to you in no time. Then you'll care about the people you've killed," The First said. 

"Asking again. What do you want from me?"

"Here's what you've got to do…."

Faith was walking along the streets of LA, not caring where she was going, her mind lost in thought. She had noticed that her hands were in her pockets of her jeans for the whole trip so far, and she had managed to run into a lot of people. Her walk was meant to clear her mind, but it had never happened. She was lost, not knowing what she could do except run. She had found herself walking down and empty street, the early morning air cool and crisp. As she walked down the street, she got the sense that something was there, something evil. The feeling grew and grew until she couldn't dismiss it any more. She looked around, but couldn't see anything, so she kept on walking, thinking that it might have been just her. She rounded the corner, the feeling lost on her now. 

"Hey kid. You look concerned," a voice said. Faith spun around to see whistler standing behind her. 

"You. What do you want?" Faith asked, almost snapping. 

"I've got a suggestion," Whistler replied. "About what you can do about these Watcher types." 

"Oh, what's that?" Faith asked.

"Take 'em down," Whistler replied. Faith instantly knew that this Whistler person was insane. 

"Yea, and how am I meant to do that? I'm only a Slayer. One supernaturally pumped up person against a big powerful organisation. Yeah, I don't like my chances," Faith replied. "And another thing? What makes you think I'm just going to trust you. You might just be some ghost, fooling me around so you can go back to your buddies and laugh about what you got me doing," Faith said in rapid fire. It was obvious she had been thinking about it. There was a slight pause, and Faith could feel that she was probably wrong, and that whatever Whistler was going to say next would prove her so.

"I showed Angel," Whistler said. 

"Showed Angel what?" Faith asked, curious now. 

"Buffy," he replied simply. There was a slight pause as Faith looked at him. "Buffy was the reason Angel started to seek redemption. I was the one that cleaned him up from sewer trash into the man, or vampire, he is today," Whistler explained. Faith just looked at him, stunned. "Go ask him if you want."

"I can't, he's missing," Faith replied. Somehow, this didn't surprise Whistler at all. Faith walked down the street, Whistler beside her, invisible to everyone else.

"Think about it. If you can take down the council, that leaves room for another one. A new one," Whistler explained. 

"Yeah? So?" Faith asked.

"Don't you get it? A new Council. One that treats the Slayer like a person, not a weapon. One that will help the Slayer live past twenty. One that won't come after the Slayer to get a new one," Whistler said. Faith just walked along, seeming like she hadn't heard a word Whistler had said. "You even listening to me?"

"How am I meant to do it? I can't take them all down," Faith said. 

"Get your friends in Sunnydale to help," Whistler said. 

"Um, y'know, they aren't my friends, and they wouldn't trust me again, ever, and I don't really want to be in Sunnydale, with them," Faith said. 

"Yeah, I know all that, but who else is going to help you kiddo? Angel's friends? They're too busy trying to find Angel to give a damn about anything else… and besides, the most powerful of the Sunnydale group is in England already," Whistler said. 

"What? Buffy's in Sunnydale?" Faith asked. 

"No… the witch… Willow," Whistler said. 

"Red's the most powerful? More powerful than Buffy? When did this happen?" Faith asked in rapid fire. 

"Well kid, that's a long story. The short one is that Willow, or Red, abused magicks, her girlfriend got murdered, Willow went and killed her murderer, got juiced up on magick, almost destroyed the world until the kid went and stopped her," Whistler explained. 

"The kid? You mean Buffy?" Faith asked. 

"No, the funny one? What's his name…" Whistler said. 

"Xander?" Faith speculated.

"Yeah. Xander… Well anyway, the witch and the watcher are over in England teaching her to use magick properly so it doesn't happen again. I think she's one of the most powerful Wiccans in the world now," Whistler said. 

"Wow. And to think I missed it all," Faith said. 

"They'd possibly help you. The Watcher might anyway, he hates the council almost as much as you do," Whistler said to Faith. 

"Geeves? Never," Faith said. "Although they did fire him…" she trailed off. Faith turned to ask Whistler something that had been on her mind for a while now, but when she turned, he was gone. 

Samantha and Montague hadn't cooperated, and Willow knew only one thing left to do. It would test all the new things she had learned in her dreams, and her newly found way of doing magick, and she hoped that things wouldn't go bad. She was standing with Cassia and Giles on either side of her, all their hands joined together. In front of them was the magickal barrier that kept them within the confines of the cabin and the little bit of the surrounding area. 

Willow's imagination went back to the dream she had had a while ago. Standing in the middle of the clearing in the forest. She remembered the girl that had come to her, strangely familiar, but different at the same time. Instantly, Willow felt better. She knew that she could do this, and she knew that Giles and Cassia would help her through it if things went bad, again. She could feel everything around her, all the energy. She could feel the power of the barrier around them. She closed her eyes and concentrated. The energy of the barrier was incredibly powerful, but she was more powerful. She drew in energy from herself, Giles and Cassia, and then channelled it outwards towards the barrier. She visualised that energy swarming over the barrier, at every single point in it. She saw the energy form their own barrier inside the outer one, and then start to push against it. She felt the outer barrier start to crack, but then it healed itself. Willow realised that what they were doing now wouldn't be enough to break the barrier. She pushed all the energy that was inside her out into their barrier and could feel the other one breaking. 

A loud crack was heard as the outer barrier fell, and Willow collapsed onto the ground. Giles and Cassia grabbed her by the arms. When she opened her eyes, she saw Clifford and James with crossbows pointing at them.

_________

Just got a good idea for the Faith Storyline that's gonna kick ass… keep tabs on that! About 1/2 way, things along there will be revealed……

Ya like it? Not like it? Tell me! Review Please!


	5. Chapter 4 Setting it Up

Sorry about the wait for this chapter. I know where I'm gong now, kinda, and well, yea, here we go

Chapter 4 - Setting it Up

They all stood there, not knowing what was going on, and not knowing what to do. There was a crossbow just inches away from each of their faces. James, Clifford and Michael were behind each of the crossbows. Willow felt completely drained. It had taken a lot of her power, and the power of the two others to bring down the barrier keeping them inside the cabin, and she suspected that the others felt the same way that she did. Without a struggle, she let Michael take her, and she looked to Cassia and Giles to make sure that both of them were doing the same thing. 

"Why are you doing this?" Willow asked Michael. 

"You abducted and held Samantha and Montague, the leaders of our coven. We have to hold you and put you on trial for this. It is obvious that it is just not the magick that corrupts you," Michael replied to Willow softly. 

"But…" Willow started, but Giles just looked to her, almost saying to leave it until they were feeling better. They were being taken to the main cabin, where Willow guessed that they'd be held until Samantha and Montague were freed; after that, she didn't want to know what would happen. 

Willow whipped her head around to see that Giles had fallen over a tree root. Using the opportunity, Willow barged into Clifford, who was helping Giles up. He fell over onto the ground, and Giles immediately sprung up and knocked James over. By this time, Michael had grabbed a hold of Cassia. Willow could see that she looked terrified by what was going on around her. 

"Don't come anywhere near us," Michael said, shocked while gripping both of Cassia's arms. Willow could feel a slight breeze building around her and the others. "And no magick," Michael added, looking straight into Willow's eyes as he did so. The breeze picked up and started to swirl around them. "I said no magick!" Michael said again, this time louder and more forceful. 

"I'm not doing anything," Willow replied, distressed. Michael just looked more frightened. Willow knew that he was a favourite with Samantha and Montague, and she knew that he was frightened now, more than anything, because he knew that Willow was more powerful than them both combined. She knew that he was the type of person that just clung to those that were more powerful because he was afraid to stick up for himself. 

"Just let her go, and we'll let you go. We won't hassle you again. You can forget we've ever been here. We just want to leave," Willow said to him. Giles took a couple of steps closer, and Michael backed away with Cassia. A large spider landed on Michael's shoulder and bit him, making him let go of Cassia. She leapt away from him, and stood with Willow and Giles. By now, James and Clifford had gotten up and were now just looking at all of them.

"What do you want?" James asked them all. "Why did you come here? To get to Samantha and Montague?" 

"They are not all that they appear to be," Giles replied to them. "They wanted Willow's power." 

"Do you think we'd believe that? Why would they want Willow's power when they're powerful enough by themselves?" Michael questioned. 

"Because it's all about power," Cassia replied for the first time. Everyone turned and looked to her. They could all tell that she didn't like being in the spotlight by the way that she looked down. To Willow, it reminded her of Tara when they had first met. "Can't you just let us go," she said to Clifford, Michael and James. 

"Willow must have brainwashed you," Michael said. "Why do you want to go with them?" Michael was clearly confused. "I thought that you were happy here? At the coven." There was a long silence. 

"Why would I stay here?" Cassia simply asked them all. "Why wouldn't I go with these two people here?" 

"Because we're your _family_," Clifford said to her. 

"But these are my _friends_," Cassia replied simply. It was obvious to Willow what Cassia was saying. She had guessed right from the minute she had met her. She could see clearly that the others didn't understand, and she knew that Cassia knew this as well. There was a long pause as Cassia let it sink in what she had just said. She stepped forward, closer to Clifford and James. 

"Why would I stay here? So you can all ignore me? So I can feel like I'm not even a person? So I can wonder what's so wrong about me that no one will take any notice of me? Why wouldn't I go with these people? I barely know them, and they barely know me, but they still treat me like I mean something. I'm sick of this life, I can't stay here any longer, it's killing me," Cassia explained to them, pouring her heart out. 

"But…" James started.

"No buts. I've given you all, the whole coven, chance after chance of changing your attitude towards me… I, I've, tried, but this is it. Goodbye," Cassia said to them. Willow could see now that they were all going to let them go, except maybe Michael, but she trusted that he knew that if he tried anything, he'd have no chance. Cassia started walking away, in the direction of the path leading out of the forest, Giles started to follow her. Willow stayed behind, standing in front of Michael, James and Clifford. 

"Listen to me," she said, sincerely. 

"We don't want to listen to you," Michael replied, full of bitterness. 

"Just listen," Willow almost snapped. "Samantha and Montague… They're hiding something from you all. I don't think they're exactly _good_ if you know what I mean. Things are coming, bad things, and they know about them… Just, keep your eyes open," Willow said to them all. All of them but Clifford seemed not to listen. Willow turned and started walking down the path. It seemed like ages since they had first come here; months. When in fact, it had only been a week or two. Willow didn't honestly know, she had lost count of time a long time ago here, as the whole place seemed to be beyond time. She was almost at the path when she spun around to face Clifford, James and Michael. 

"Oh, and if any of you try to follow us, or do anything to us… or if I even see any of you again…" she trailed off, not seeing a need to finish the sentence. She quickly caught up to Giles and Cassia who were further down along the path, heading towards the car, if it was still there. 

Faith was in her room, or more specifically, a room that she was staying in at a home for kids off the street, which was run by Anne. She was heavily thinking about what Whistler had said to her. She desperately wanted a new Watchers Council, something she hadn't even thought possible until Whistler had suggested it to her. It would be great to have a humane Council. She could do her job then. She wouldn't hate the watchers then. Well, she didn't hate the watchers now, she liked Giles, and she had liked her watcher previously. It was just the ones higher up that she didn't like, the ones who wanted to kill her. She also thought about what would go down in history. "Faith, the Slayer who restored the Watchers Council." She rather liked that idea. It would be better than, "Faith, the rouge Slayer," for sure. 

There was one problem though; where to start. She doubted that Buffy and the Scooby Gang would help her, and even if they wanted to, they probably had some crisis that they were dealing with in Sunnydale, as usual in that town. She had no contacts with the outside world what so ever. 

Even if she could find some people to help her, she had no idea where to start on the Watchers Council itself; how she would attack it. She didn't know where any Watchers were. She didn't know where any of their main bases were, and she didn't know how to take down the whole thing. She knew that her best chance was probably at taking out the top office, the one in England, but they'd have tight security. 

A thought suddenly appeared inside her head. She could turn herself in. She could say that she wanted to become a Slayer again, and listen to the Council. Certainly, they'd value a Slayer that already had experience than a new Slayer that didn't. She would be a more powerful weapon to them. She could say that she was sick of the fighting, the hiding, the fleeing, and the destructive lifestyle she had gotten herself into. She decided that she could pull it off, and grabbed the nearest phone and dialled a number that had been drilled into her. 

It was a hive of activity in the colossal room. It was just a conference room, but there were little groups of people spread out throughout the room, they were all concentrating on their current crisis. The room was very large, with a high ceiling, and grey-white-cream walls. Up above them, the ceiling was made of panels of glass to let the natural light inside. A large window stretched across two walls of the room, and the other two both had large paintings, one of a desert, and one of a forest, and there was a large bench against each wall; where all the little groups of people were milling about. There was a very large circular conference table in the middle of the room, chairs surrounding it. Two men and three women sat at the head of the conference table. The man at the head of the table was obviously the one in charge. He was in his mid sixties and had greying hair. His name was Quentin Travers. 

"It's not a matter of _if_ but _when_ they get here," one of the women told him.

"They wouldn't dare attack us," Travers replied to her. 

"And why is that?" one of the men asked him. "If they attack us, what's going to happen to them? Who's going to obliterate them in wrath of our destruction? No one, because we are the last line of defence." Quentin Travers just nodded in reply. 

"We must find out all that we can about our attackers," another one of the women said. Everyone just nodded in agreement. 

A woman came in through the doors and marched over to the table. All the people at the table recognised her as Quentin's personal assistant. She whispered something into his ear and was there quite a while, until she turned and left again. Everyone looked to Travers, hoping to know what it was that she said to him. He just looked at them all closely before he began. 

"It seems, we have yet another problem on our hands," he started. "Faith has escaped prison and is believed to be hiding out in Los Angeles," Travers said. 

"What?" a couple of the people sitting around the conference table exclaimed. 

"Why?" they all asked straight afterwards. 

"We don't know. But we have heard of unconfirmed rumours that she is working for the same thing that is attacking our agencies," Travers said. "but, that is an unconfirmed rumour, and probably false," Travers said. No one said anything in response. 

"The thing we have to decide is, what are we going to do about her, and we also have to ask ourselves if we have the resources to deal with her," one of the women said. Quentin's assistant came back into the room and whispered into his ear again. He grunted a bit while she was doing so, which caught everyone's attention. After Travers' Assistant had left, Quentin looked at the small group again. 

"It seems ironic now but… Faith's turned herself in," he said. Everyone's eyebrows raised as Travers said this. "Apparently, she said that she's sick of running, and wants to be a Slayer again."

"Fair enough," the other man said. 

"Well then, what do we do?" one of the women asked.

"We bring her in," Travers said. 

Buffy, Dawn and Xander were sitting around the lounge room of the Summers' house, having just listened to Buffy's recollection of the events that had occurred in the previous couple of days and the vampire battles and the large figures in hoods. They had all agreed that while Willow was very important to them, they couldn't just go and leave Sunnydale unguarded. They had to do something about the figures in black hoods first, and from what Buffy had told them, it wouldn't be easy. They were fast, strong, accurate and struck fear into the hearts of anyone who saw them, or at least that's what Buffy had told them anyway. Xander knew that she was probably just saving herself the embarrassment of admitting she was terrified of the things. They were going out tonight on patrol in hopes of encountering and destroying the things, but from what Buffy had said, that might be a lot easier said than done. After all, they had destroyed a large number of vampires easily. Xander looked out the window and he could see that it was almost sunset, which meant it was almost time to go. He got up and followed Buffy to the weapons chest, where he grabbed a bow and a sword. He strung the bow over his shoulder and kept the sword in his hand. For once, Buffy was letting Dawn come along with them, using the excuse of _safety in numbers_ than anything else. 

Together they all walked out the door into the streets of Sunnydale, not afraid of what they were going out to fight. Well, not yet anyway. 

On the other side of town, someone else was preparing to go out on the town as well, and her intentions were very similar to those who belonged to the Scooby Gang. She needed to capture one of the large hooded figures. She had encountered them before, and they weren't too easy to fight, let alone capture, but Amy had a plan, and she needed one of these things in order to carry it out. She grabbed her red robe and as she walked out the door to the unit she had rented, she wrapped it around herself, seeming to disappear from the world as she did so.


	6. Chapter 5 Vampires of Aurelius

New Chapter up… I know where I'm going now, got a structure for the next coupla paragraphs… enjoy… R/R please…. 

All your questions will be answered too, not in this chapter obviously, but eventually.

Chapter 5

Vampires of Aurelius

The vampire went flying through the air and hit the wall hard enough to make the blocks making up the wall slightly shift. Suprisingly this didn't hurt the vampire much at all as he immediately got up and was ready to fight again. Snorl went for him again, determined that no puny vampire would be able to stand up to him. Snorl was tall, had a hide made from a substance much like a tortoise shell, and he was strong, very strong. The vampire attacked him again, sending a punch into his stomach. At the same time, Snorl realised that that was the first hit the vampire had landed on him all night, and that he was flying backwards through the air at breakneck speeds. He hit the wall opposite where the vampire had hit just moments before. Before he knew what was happening, the vampire was on top of him, hands around his neck, ready to snap it. He looked up and could see the cheering crowd, chanting for the vampire to make the kill. Snorl didn't care if he did or not. He was only in these things because he had nothing else to do. Being immortal had wiped out his will to live. Snorl's species of demons never died of old age, no matter what happened. He had done everything, and now was just waiting to find a means to an end, and it looked like the vampire above him was that means. He closed his eyes and waited for the blow to come, but instead it never did. 

Snorl opened his eyes again only to see that the vampire had backed off. Snorl used this opportunity to get up and face the vampire again, but the vampire just put his hand out as if he was trying to say _don't even try it_. Snorl, for once, took this advice and relaxed a bit. He and the vampire were in a pit in the floor, with sand on the bottom and a very high railing on the top. Around the pit were people and demons alike, all of them chanting the name of the vampire, which Snorl couldn't tell. The Vampire shouted to the crowd to be quiet, and to Snorl's surprise, they actually did. He watched this vampire with curiosity, he seemed to have some level of control over the demons in the complex. 

"Vampires… Demons… Humans…" the vampire shouted so everyone could here. "That's what we've got here in this city," he continued on. "Just Vampires… Demons… and _humans_," the vampire let a silence sweep over the building. With extraordinary skill, he jumped up out of the pit and onto the railing. "The Humans rule the world… they rule us! And they have for the last few thousand years!…But what if…" he started off. "What if we were the ones in control, like it should be. This planet was given to us! Us demons! I say we should take it back!?" the vampire said. "What if an army could be raised, to overthrow the humans? Make them work for us!" the vampire said to the crowd again. There were many cheers throughout the crowd, but Snorl could tell that most of them weren't buying it. "You've all felt it," the vampire started again. "That feeling, that something's coming, something big. That presence that seems to be everywhere… well it's here, and it's starting it's work," the vampire said again. 

"And let me guess, this is you?" a vampire in the crowd shouted out, knowing that the vampire that was standing on the railing was probably just another vampire out for glory. 

"No. No it isn't," the vampire replied. 

"Then who are you?" the vampire in the crowd shouted to him. 

"My name's Angelus," Angelus said back to him. "And I'm working for The First Evil," he added, knowing that most of his speech sounded like he was trying to sell a car, not recruit an army. Murmurs spread throughout the crowd. Mostly everyone had heard of the story of Angelus, and Snorl was one of them. He did believe that the vampire he had just fought was in fact Angelus. The way he fought fitted the myths about him. "So, who's with me?" Angelus asked the crowd. In reply, there was a loud cheer, followed by the vampires feasting on the humans who once had been watching the fight. 

Lilah walked down the hallway of Wolfram and Hart. She was confident that there had been sufficient time for her subject, Darla, to recover from being brought back from the dead, again. They had brought her back on orders from the Senior Partners, without an explanation of what they were to use her for, or what the purpose of bringing her back from the dead was. Lilah _almost_ felt sorry for her, almost. It must have been a tough deal to be risen from the dead just so that they could use her as a means to an end, just like they used all their clients. She stepped up to a door and opened it with a key. On the door there was a plaque with the name _Lilah Morgan_ on it. She stepped into her office. It was very large, with one wall of pure unbreakable glass. Near the glass wall sat her desk, and she could see that there was a manilla folder sitting on it. She walked over and opened it up. It was from the Senior Partners, explaining what was going to occur concerning Darla. She quickly read the contents of the file, and then put it through the shredder. She stepped out of her office to one directly opposite her. Through the door was a made up apartment, and in the middle, sitting on the couch staring into space was Darla. 

"Hello Darla," Lilah said to her. She didn't seem to respond to Lilah's call. Lilah walked around so Darla could see her, and thankfully, Darla moved her head and looked at Lilah.

"Why?" was all that she said. Lilah looked down at her, and went to sit next to her, but Darla moved away as she did so. 

"Because we need you Darla," Lilah simply replied. 

"Why?" Darla simply asked again. 

"For your son, and Angelus," Lilah replied. At mention of her son and Angelus, some life finally seemed to come into her. Lilah knew that Darla would refuse the offer that they were going to make her, so, instead she had to do it the old fashioned way. She got up off the couch and walked around to the table, where there was a large vase. "They need you Darla, especially Connor," Lilah continued as she was walking. 

"Connor?" Darla whimpered. Lilah walked over behind Darla, the vase raised above her head, and brought it down with a sick crunch, knocking Darla unconscious. Lilah put the remaining half of the vase which was in her hands down and carefully lay Darla down on the couch. She then pulled out a mobile phone. 

"Bring Druscilla up," she said. 

Spike had walked all around the town he was now in, and there wasn't a soul to be seen. He had only seen that one person walking down the street after he had come through the portal, and he'd disappeared. All the stores were closed, which was to be expected as it was probably around four in the morning, but there weren't any signs of life at all. There were no cars in the streets, no rubbish, no animals, nothing. All the stores looked like they had been abandoned for years. To Spike, the town looked remotely like Sunnydale, but at the same time it wasn't. Some of the buildings were basically in ruin, while others stood, looking as if they had just been built.

Spike rounded the corner, and saw a sight that was familiar to him. In front of him, with his vampiric eyes, he saw a sign that was all too familiar to him. _Welcome to Sunnydale_. He looked beyond the sign, and all he could see was rubble. There was nothing resembling the town of Sunnydale at all. He just noticed something else on the _Welcome to Sunnydale _sign. It had writing spray painted across it, and as he came closer, he began to make out what it said: _Home sweet home_. 

Spike now ran towards the town full speed, and as he was approaching it, he saw a singular headlight ahead. He stepped out into the middle of the road, and he could see that it was a motorbike that was approaching. On top of it was a figure clad in tight black leather, with a purely black helmet on. 

"Hey mate, slow down!" Spike yelled. The rider didn't even acknowledge the fact that Spike was there, at first anyway. Spike stepped directly into the bike's path and saw an object flying at him and it was only due to his speed as a vampire and skill that he moved out of the way. He watched the rider speed past, engine blazing, and saw that they had just tried to shoot Spike with a crossbow. He realised that something must have gone terribly wrong while he was gone, and Spike didn't even know how long he had been gone. He remembered the fact that time was different in different dimensions. In all likelihood, he had probably been gone for years, or even decades.

He turned around and continued his journey in towards Sunnydale, or what was left of it anyway. 


	7. Chapter 6 Old Ghosts, New Problems Part...

Here's Chapter 6 for you. I'm going to go back and Change Chapter 5 soon. If you're reading this and in Chapter 5 Angelus is going on about Humans and how there should be none of them in the fighting arena, well then I haven't changed it. If not, I have. Enjoy Chapter 6. I've got a REALLY good idea where things are going for the next couple of chapters now, so this is ALL planned! Read/Review Please 

Chapter 6

Old Ghosts, New Problems (Part 1) 

Buffy, Xander and Dawn had been roaming the streets of Sunnydale for at least an hour now, and they hadn't seen anything, not even a vampire. It was like they were looking in all the wrong places. This was creeping them all out even more, especially Xander and Dawn as none of them had any kind of supernatural powers. They were just about to give up when a form shimmered into existence in front of them. It was Anya. 

"I know what you're doing, and I'm not allowed to be here doing this, but I'm here to help," Anya said. Buffy, Dawn and especially Xander were standing there stunned. "What? Is there something in my hair?" Anya asked them all as they were standing there gawking at her. 

"We… We just didn't expect this," Buffy said to her. "Expect you to pop in and help us." Buffy saw that Xander was completely stunned and she knew that it would be awkward for him to be in, and she hoped that it wouldn't affect his ability to look out for himself. A few awkward moments passed before the group started moving off again. 

"Maybe we should split up," Dawn suggested.

"Safety in numbers," Buffy replied. "We don't want to be caught single handedly against these things," Buffy continued. Something then dawned on her. 

"Anya? Do you know anything about these things that have moved into town? Big hooded robes, ability to kill lots of vamps really fast, really scary?" Buffy asked. She looked to Anya, who she could see was considering saying something or not. 

"Yes, I do, but I'm not allowed to say anything about it," Anya replied. Buffy was annoyed Anya's inability to cooperate. 

"By who?" Buffy asked. Anya just looked at her awkwardly as they walked along. Buffy noticed that Xander and Dawn had dropped back a bit. "Who's making you all secretive?" 

"I can't say," Anya replied. "I wish I could, but I can't. I'll get killed if anyone finds out I've spoken, especially to you," Anya said. 

"Well, we won't tell anyone," Buffy replied. "Who could find out?" 

"Trust me, there are ways," Anya replied. There was another silence between the two, each moderately annoyed with the other. "Look, I just want to help," Anya said again. 

"Well, right now, you're not," Buffy said. They continued to walk along for a while, in silence. Dawn and Xander caught up to them after a while. Buffy could feel the tension between Anya and Xander, and thought she'd be able to cut the air with a knife. After a while, she found out that she couldn't do that after trying, but it was worth a shot. 

Fifteen minutes later, the long lasting boredom was finally broken as Buffy and Xander as they saw movement ahead in a cemetery. As they approached, they could see that it was the large dark hooded figures that Buffy had told them about. It looked to Buffy as they were looking for something in the cemetery by the way they were slowly moving around, going from grave to grave. Buffy crouched low to the ground, and everyone else took her lead and did the same. Buffy signalled for them to split up and go at the figures from both sides. Xander teamed up with Buffy, and Dawn with Anya. Crouching low to the ground, Buffy and Xander made their way through the graveyard, hiding behind tombstones to be out of view of the hooded figures. 

They could see them now, only fifteen metres or so away, and they were still searching for something. Buffy could sense that a vampire was about to rise nearby, and she guessed that that was what they were looking for, but she couldn't guess why. She spent the time waiting for Dawn and Anya to get into position to study the creatures closely. However, when she looked at them, she could feel her insides twisting up into knots. She didn't want dawn near these things, but she couldn't leave her on her own, defenceless either. She was about to get up and change positions to a tombstone she could see nearby when Buffy saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. A figure was coming towards them through the graveyard. What scared Buffy the most was that the figure was glowing, and it knew exactly where they were. Buffy crouched a little higher to get a view of what was coming at them, and when she saw it, her whole body went numb, weapon falling to the ground out of her hand. She barely managed to look over to Xander, but he was staring off into space for some reason. Buffy looked back up, and the figure was now only feet away from them, looking straight at Buffy. There was no mistaking what it was now. 

"Mum?" Buffy barely whispered, "Is that really you?" she croaked to the figure of Joyce Summers. The figure just looked back at her and softly spoke,

"Yes honey, it is me." Buffy's eyes started to fill with tears as she looked at her mother. 

"But how…" she started to say, but Joyce silenced her by beginning to speak. 

"Listen, I don't have much time to explain… things are coming Buffy. You've got to prepare everyone, there's just enough time," Joyce started to say, but then she began to fade. 

"Mum? What's coming? What do I have to do? Don't leave!" Buffy said in rapid fire, almost screaming the last part. She reached out to her mother, but her hand went straight through her with no effect. 

"I love you," Buffy heard Joyce say before she disappeared completely. 

Xander was scared, that much he was absolutely certain of. He looked at those things, and all he felt was a wave of fear sweep over him. He doubted he'd be much use in a fight against those things, but yet he knew that he had to be anyway. He peeked around his tombstone, hoping against all hope that the creatures had gone away and that they wouldn't have to fight against them. When Xander came to think of it, he didn't know why they were going to fight these things. If they could do what Buffy had said they could do, they'd stand no chance of getting out of it alive. They didn't even know what they wanted. For all they knew these things might be on their side, they didn't know at all. 

"What do you think you're doing young man?" A strange but familiar voice said behind Xander. He spun around looked up at who was speaking to him, and his mouth gaped open. In front of him now stood his school's principal, who had been eaten by a giant snake that used to be the Mayor of Sunnydale. 

"Wha, wha, wha," Xander stuttered. Xander saw movement behind the short bald headed man called Principal Snyder. A hand came down on Snyder's shoulder, and another familiar face popped into view. It was the principal before Snyder; Principal Flutie. 

"The youth of today, rampaging the streets late at night. Back in my day we weren't even allowed out at night," Flutie said. 

"But this one's trouble," Principal Snyder said to Flutie. 

"Oh, that's right. He's got alcoholic parents, must be a bad type," Flutie said. 

"And, don't forget, he's associating with _her_," Snyder said while turning to look at Buffy. Xander was still on the ground, half awe stricken, half terrified, not knowing what was going on. Xander looked over to Buffy, who looked like she was talking to herself. He looked back to Principal Flutie and Snyder. 

"Also, don't forget, he _ate_ me," Principal Flutie said, looking Xander directly in the eyes. The simple action of that brought back memories that Xander didn't even want to think about: the time he was infused with the personality of a hyena and he and a couple of other of his classmates went and ate the principal.

"She's bad news that Summers girl. She'll end up getting him killed… I've seen it," Snyder said to Flutie. 

"She'll end up getting everyone killed," Flutie replied to him. They both turned to Xander now, and actually acknowledged that he was there. 

"Watch out about her, be careful. She might seem like she's trying to do the right thing, but she won't be," Snyder said to him quietly. "Watch out for her."

Buffy didn't know how long she had been standing there, stunned, but when she looked over to Xander, she saw a sight she didn't believe. Xander was on his back, on the ground, staring up in terror at nothing. She guessed that he was seeing ghosts of his own. She picked up her knife that she had dropped and raced over to him grabbing his hand as she went. She lifted him to his feet and looked around for the hooded figures, but they were no where to be found. She turned back to Xander to ask what he had been doing, but she saw that he was completely in shock. 

"Xander!" She exclaimed to him as he was standing there. "Xander!" she shouted this time bringing him around. 

"Buffy," he stammered. She grabbed his hand and led him away from the spot that they were standing. 

"But, but," he stammered again, pointing back towards where they had been standing. 

"Come on Xander, we have to go… now," Buffy said while tightening her grip on his hand and starting to run towards where Anya and Dawn would be. She saw them come out of their hiding places, coming towards them with distressed looks on their faces. "Come on, we have to go!" Buffy shouted to both of them. They quickly got the idea and started to go with Buffy and Xander

Xander was still being dragged along by Buffy while trying to look back to where they were standing before; where he had seen Principal Flutie and Snyder. They got to the gate of the cemetery, and Xander looked back and saw them still standing there. 

"Be careful about her," they both shouted to him. He kept looking at them, ignoring everyone else. Principal Flutie grew in height, and started to change form. Black robes came around him, and he shifted his appearance into that of the large hooded figure they were meant to attack. He looked to Principal Snyder, and the same was happening to him, but differently. The colour of his skin changed from the colour of humans to a dark colour that Xander couldn't see from the distance he was standing. Black hooded robes seemed to shimmer into existence from nowhere and wrap themselves around the figure, so it looked exactly like the one he had seen Principal Flutie morph into. The two dark hooded figures stood there, seeming to be the same things they had been out hunting for. They both turned away and glided off into the depths of the cemetery. 

Buffy was looking into the cemetery, trying to see what Xander was looking at, but she couldn't see anything. Then, out of the darkness, one of the hooded figures shimmered into existence, right in the direction Xander had been looking. Next to it, Buffy saw a creature with dark skin and reddish-orange eyes shimmer into existence and hooded robes shimmer around it. She watched as the two hooded figures turned and seemed to glide over the grass in the opposite direction to Buffy and the rest of the group. 

"Come on, we have to go," Buffy said to them all. She didn't want to let on how much her encounter with her mother had shaken her up. Even though none of the group knew what had happened to her, she didn't want any of them to see her vulnerable like she was. She just wanted to get home, and be safe for the rest of the night.

When they arrived back at the Summers' House, they were all met with a surprise that no one could have seen coming. Three girls, all about Dawn's age, maybe a little older were standing on the front porch, all with a little bit of luggage, and all looking worse for wear. They were all covered in bruises and looked exhausted. 

"Buffy Summers?" One of them asked the group. She was sitting on the front step and got up when the group approached. Buffy drew her knife out of her pants and stood in a fighting position. 

"That's me," she replied carefully.

"We were told to come to you," the girl said to her, offering her hand in friendship. Buffy relaxed a little, but was still on guard as she shook the girl's hand. 


	8. Chapter 7 Old Ghosts, New Problems Part...

Chapter 5 will be the next thing to be changed… I'm going to change what Angelus was saying, they're not going to kill the humans (thanks Q.B. for pointing that out)… they're going to do something else, but I don't know what yet. It won't affect my plans for the storyline though) Here's Chapter 7, and in my opinion, this is getting better by the chapter. Review Please!!!! Tell us what you think! 

Chapter 7

New Ghosts, Old Problems (Part 2)

They had pulled up in a small town called Milton, a short distance from Giles' home town of Bath. It was just past midday and Willow and Cassia had gone to book them all into a Motel Room as they were all exhausted, especially Willow. Giles wondered how Willow had managed to get a grasp of all of her power all of a sudden. It was remarkable what she had done at the coven, and he needed to know if it would hold up. Giles was sitting in a small cafe, across the road from the Motel Willow and Cassia were booking them into. He was lost in thought when someone came and sat opposite him the booth he was in. Giles dropped his cup as he recognised who it was. 

"What? Did you think a little asphyxiation would kill me?" Ben said. "Come on. I was sharing my body with a God, I'm not going down that easily," Ben said. In instant, Giles' memories flashed through the events of that night, now only a year ago. He remembered that fight with Glory, and he remembered how he had killed Ben, the man who had to share his body with Glory in order for her to survive. Giles had calmly put his hand over Ben's mouth, suffocating him and effectively killing the God Glory. 

"You're not here, you can't be," Giles said calmly after he had collected himself. He went to touch Ben on the hand, but his fingers went right through him. 

"Yeah, so, there are advantages to being a ghost," Ben said to him. 

"You know I did what I had to do. What was right," Giles said to him. Ben just nodded, seeming to understand. No one said anything for a couple of moments, but then Ben broke the silence,

"Yeah. You just killed a man for the greater good. What does it matter if one man dies so many can live?" Ben allowed a short silence to occur. "Gee, if I didn't know better, I'd say you are becoming like the Watchers Council old man," Ben said to him. "With the whole reckless attitude. Treating people like they're things, not people." Giles just sat there, knowing that that wasn't happening to him. There were special circumstances surrounding his actions that night, and he was sure that if anybody had been put in his place, they would have done the same as he did. 

"No," Giles said as he shook his head. "No, that's not…" Giles started before Ben cut him off. 

"Oh, okay. You just tell yourself that. Hope it makes you sleep easier at night," Ben said. He got up to leave, but not before saying; "I just popped in to tell you that you'll be hearing a lot more about me from now on, and that I'm not going to let any of you forget what you've done. The small talk's over, from now on, it's going to be all action… Don't forget about me Rupert," Ben said. Then, he morphed into an all to familiar figure for Giles, that of Jenny Calendar. "Because I sure won't forget about you," she said before walking past Giles. He sat there, stunned, but when he turned his head to look at her again, she was gone, not a trace left behind. 

Willow and Cassia walked down the long block of rooms, looking for the one they were to stay in. It hadn't cost nearly as much as Willow had expected, and that was good, and she hoped that the rooms would be fairly decent for that price, but she doubted it. As she was walking, she was going over the events of the previous few weeks in her head, remembering it all, even the parts she didn't want to remember. She snapped out of her thoughts, remembering that she was meant to be looking for a room to stay in. 

"What number is it?" she asked Cassia. Cassia looked at the key.

"Room 314," she replied.

"Heh," Willow let out after hearing the number of the room. 

"What is it?" Cassia asked. 

"Oh, no, nothing. Don't worry about it. It's a long story," Willow said. "I'll have to tell you about it later," Willow added. Willow could see that they were coming up to the door labelled 314. She put her hand on the knob and looked at Cassia. "Here goes nothing," she whispered to herself, secretly scared of what she might find once she opened the door, but at the same time, she knew that she'd most likely find an ordinary motel room with nothing wrong with it and she knew that it was just her being paranoid. She turned the knob and opened the door, and she got the surprise of her life once the door opened. 

Willow was expecting to find a run down motel room, but instead she found a very picturesque room with cream coloured walls and light pink-cream coloured carpet on the floor. There was a new TV in the corner, and Willow could see a kitchenette over by the back door which lead onto a small patio. "Wow, this is nice," Willow said. Cassia peaked over her shoulder, trying to see inside. 

"You know, it might actually help if we go inside," she said to Willow. 

"Oh, right, of course," Willow said as she stepped over the threshold. She walked inside, looking around the room. She could feel Cassia behind her, and she could feel something else. Something wasn't right. There was evil here, and Willow recognised the feeling. She'd had it for a long time, ever since they had been at the coven with Samantha and Montague. She dismissed it and heard the door close. She could see the entrance to the bedroom and started to walk towards it when she heard a voice that stopped her dead in her tracks. 

"Willow?" the voice said with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Willow spun around to face the voice that was addressing her from behind, and got the shock of her life. Tara was standing at the door to the room looking from Willow to Cassia with a pained look on her face. Willow quickly filled in the blanks. 

"It's not…" she began. "It's not…" she tried to say, but she couldn't. She couldn't say anything, at all. Her feet were just frozen to the ground, not able to move. Standing pretty much in front of her was the love of her life, the one person she would always love with all of her heart. The same girl whose death took Willow over the edge, causing her to almost end the world. But she was standing right in front of her. 

"How could you do this Willow?" Tara said sweetly, her words cutting into Willow like a red hot knife through butter. Willow just stood there, on the verge of tears as Tara stood there, accusing her of being with Cassia, preying on Willow's weakest point; her fear of betraying Tara and her memory of Tara. 

"I'm not…" Willow again tried to say. Tara just stood there, looking down at her, looking betrayed. "This isn't what you're thinking," Willow said, at last getting a complete sentence out. She rushed forward to grab Tara's hand, but instead she went through her and ran into the door. She spun around to see that Tara was still facing her. "You're a ghost?" Willow asked. Tara just nodded in response. Willow could feel that there was something wrong, and that there was something wrong with Tara too. "How come you're here? Now?" Willow asked.

"To see you, silly… and to give you a message," Tara replied. 

"Why now? Why not earlier? When I needed you?" Willow asked, then realising her mistake she added "… more than I do now." 

"Because they wouldn't let me," Tara replied. 

"Who wouldn't let you?"

"They wouldn't. I couldn't come, no matter what I tried," Tara replied. "I wanted to come and see you with everything I have, but, I couldn't," Tara said. "I miss you Willow," she said, tears starting to form on the ghostly version of herself. By now Willow was crying, wanting more than anything to hug Tara. She could see that Cassia didn't know what was going on, but she didn't care. 

"I've missed you too… so, so, so much," Willow said to her. "Life's not the same without you Tara." Willow looked into the eyes of Tara's ghost, and looked at her whole body, and she instantly knew that it wasn't her Tara. Her Tara didn't hold herself this confidently in situations like this, and she didn't speak without stuttering in situations like this either, no matter if Willow was there or not. 

Suddenly, the ghost of Tara began to fade slowly, and Tara looked absolutely terrified. Willow hadn't seen anyone look that scared in her whole life, ever. The image of Tara began to hit against some kind of invisible barrier that must have surrounded Tara as no matter which way she went, she seemed to run into something. She looked straight up. 

"No! Not like this! I'll kill her before they get together!" Tara screamed up into the air. "You can't do this!" The image of Tara began to fade more and more, and then it changed into the form of someone that Willow didn't recognise. Then it changed again, and again, and again, and again, changing into the forms of dozens of people right in front of Willow's eyes. Finally, it shifted itself back into a stable form, the form of Warren He looked straight into Willow's eyes, and his eyes turned red. "I'm going to kill you. You know what I am, and that you can't stop me, and that I'm coming after you," Warren said to Willow before disappearing in a flash. Willow was shaking, she didn't know what to make of any of it. She didn't know if Tara's ghost was real and it had just been possessed by something, she didn't know if she had been talking to the real Tara or not. The worst thing for Willow was that she didn't know what to do, about anything in her life, not one single thing. She didn't know where she was heading, and she was afraid of where she could end up. 

Cassia was helping her up, and Willow, just agreeing to whatever Cassia said fathomed that she was going to take her to Giles, and that they were going to get some rest. When they got out of the room however, Cassia found Giles in much the same state as Willow, although Willow was worse. She didn't know what had happened in the room, but she knew that something had happened, and that it wasn't good. 

She sat there, listening to the whine of the jet's engines. She had just listened to the same sound now for what seemed like ages, but was probably only half an hour. She wasn't even given a radio, a magazine or anything else on this flight, probably not even meals. She made a mental note that whenever she was going to surrender again, she's have to get herself closer to the headquarters first. Faith sat there, on the plane that the Council had especially chartered for her return to the Watchers Council's headquarters in England. It had only been an hour after she had dialled the Council's headquarters when a van had pulled up outside the location she had given them. Suprisingly to Faith, there had been only two armed guards, the rest were Watchers that accompanied her on her journey. This had troubled Faith at first, thinking that they were just going to get one of the guards to shoot her, but her problems had disappeared when she was put on the plane. After all, why would someone charter a plane for a corpse? They also hadn't used handcuffs until they were on the plane, and this again had caused Faith distress. Who did they think they were dealing with? She was Faith, the Rogue Slayer, dangerous and temperamental. It was obvious that her reputation had fallen while she had been in prison.

So here she was now, sitting in the jet. Originally it had been flying from Los Angeles to Atlanta, but now it was flying across the country, where Faith was told they'd be refuelled, then it was off to England. No one had spoken to Faith except the man who had been sitting across from her in the van when it had originally pulled up in front of Anne's home. He had told her the conditions of which she had turned herself in and agreed to, and supposedly what was going to happen to her. After that, everyone was silent around her, no one spoke to her, or even looked in her direction, except the security guards. 

Faith was just sitting there, looking out the window, making at least some plan of how to attack the Council once she got inside. Maybe she could earn their trust, then she'd be able to get places they wouldn't let her normally go. Maybe she should wait for the right time and then just go wild, attacking everyone and somehow burn the Headquarters to the ground, taking her with it if needs be. She didn't really know what she was going to do. 

Out of the corner of her eye, a figure came and sat beside her. She turned her head and saw the last person she'd ever expect to see; Richard Wilkins III, former Mayor of Sunnydale, former giant snake who was blown to bits. 

"Hey kiddo, how's it going?" he said, smile spread across his face. 

"Wha…" she said as she got up and backed into the wall, causing the guards to look at her. 

"Hey, come on, sit down," he calmly said. Faith just looked at him. 

"Aren't you supposed to be dead," she whispered quickly to him. 

"Yeah, and technically, I am," he said to her while pointing. "Come on, wave your arm through me. It's not so bad. It tickles." Faith followed his instructions and waved her cuffed hands through him. "See, not so bad now is it?" Faith smiled at this, bringing back old memories. "Come on, relax, it's only me," The Mayor said to her. Faith just looked at him, and then sat back down normally in her seat. "I can't hurt you, you know, being a ghost and everything." 

"Why are you here?" Faith asked. 

"Right down to business hey? That's just like my Faith, likes to get her hands dirty." Faith just sat there, looking over him again. 

"Well?" she asked. Richard Wilkins just sighed. 

"Do you really think you're doing the right thing Faith?" The Mayor asked her. "Really? Honestly? I know that you do, but are you doing it for the right reasons?" 

"What do you mean?" Faith asked him, intrigued and interested now. 

"Destroying the Watchers' Council? Why are you doing that?" 

"Because it's about time we got treated right and proper, and to protect myself," Faith replied. "I know that it's selfish, wanting to get out of everything that I've done. But Slaying's my thing, you know that. I need to do it without some macho organisation looking down my back," Faith said, pouring her thoughts out to the nearest person, or ghost, that would listen. 

"That's what you're telling yourself. You're lying to yourself Faith," Wilkins said to her. She was majourly offended by what he was saying. 

"That's why I'm doing it!" Faith exclaimed. She knew that the guards were looking at her, but she didn't care. She was pissed off, at the ghost of her former boss. Mayor Wilkins just slowly nodded his head and there was a short silence over the whole plane, except for the whine of the engines. 

"Do you really think that Buffy will accept you after you do this? Really, that's what it's all about isn't it Faith?" Faith just furrowed up her brow

"No, it isn't. I couldn't care less about B," Faith replied to him, getting more on edge by the minute. 

"Then why'd you ring her up, asking for help?" The Mayor asked. 

"Because at the time she was the only one who could help me," Faith replied while getting up and walking right through him into the aisle, which for the first time Faith noticed was wider than usual. 

"Taking the Council down isn't going to make you a better person," Wilkins said to her. Faith spun around. "There is after all, still…me," Wilkins said while morphing into the image of the Deputy Mayor of Sunnydale; the man Faith had killed which ultimately sent her on a downwards spiral that had wrecked her whole life. She knew that the guard was coming up behind her, and she ducked down low and spun around and extended her leg, hitting the guard on the side of the knee, knocking him over. 

"Get away from me!" Faith said. Suddenly, she was tackled to the ground from behind by another guard, who was shouting to the Watchers' on the plane to come and help him. Faith was pinned down on the ground, and soon her legs were bound and she was placed back into a seat, her arms cuffed to the chair in front of her. The Watchers and the Security Guards were talking amongst themselves, and Faith had overheard the words 'talking to herself' and 'crazy', and she knew that they were about her. But she wasn't paying attention to any of those things, she was paying attention to the man who looked remarkably like the former Deputy Mayor of Sunnydale who was walking around the plane. 


	9. Chapter 8 Renascence

Hey everyone, the changes to Chapter 5 have been made. Instead of killing all the humans, they're gonna overtake them and rule them, or so Angelus says. 

In my opinion, this is the BEST!!!!!! Chapter I have ever written in all my stories (This series, plus my "Slayers Series" series, although I'm a lil disappointed I couldn't pull off the intensity I have accomplished in the first half or so with the second half or so, but it's still bloody good! IF you can figure out what the word _Renascence_ is you can figure out what this chapter is all about! It is a real word. I typed in a word into MS word and hit the theausarus to get this word, cause the original word I had was too obvious and sucky. 

This is the BEST chapter, expect some old faces to come back! It's a very long chapter, and it keep the previous chapter in mind for this (Old Ghosts, New Problems parts 1 and 2)

Read and review please… pull this chapter apart! I wanna improve it! Take guesses as to what's happening, what's going to happen! I want to see if I'm throwing people offtrack, like I hope I am! Also, I don't know, but there may not be ANY more spike in this story, but the next one in the series (if I leave room for a next one) will pick up straight off where Spike left in this one… I don't know yet, all that's a maybe. But there is a lot to go in this, trust me, a hell of a lot. 

Okay, r/r please! This is very good chapter!

Chapter 8

Renascence

It was a cold night for that region of the world, and it was a night that some of the people would never forget, including her. She looked around from the top of the cliffs, at the city below her. The city looked like it was just a large series of fireflies spread out to the horizon. It felt weird to be back here, again, but she knew why she had come back. She had to warn them all, and get them to protect her. An extremely large gust of wind came from behind her and it would have blown her off the cliffs if she wasn't supernaturally aided. She knew that those weren't quite the right terms, but, she couldn't think of anything else to describe herself as now, so much had changed about her since she had last been here. She looked up at the moon, needing to see it before it disappeared for the rest of the night. To anyone else, anyone who was normal, they would have said that a large storm was coming. But she knew differently. _She _was coming, and this storm that was coming now was just a side effect. The cold bit into her like a thousand needles, and she knew that the outer reaches of her body were now frozen, but she quickly fixed that by redistributing the energies in her body so that she could keep warm. Up here, in the mountains, the rain that soon came had turned to ice, and bit into her skin. She changed the pain threshold in her body now, so that she wouldn't register that pain. It was so easy to master the human body to it's full extents now, she could change her body to do whatever she wanted it to do. If only she had learnt that years ago, her life would have been much easier. 

Soon, the rain was pouring down by the bucket full, and in the morning, it would be revealed on the news that it had been the heaviest rainfall in over a centaury. She mentally prepared herself for what was to come. She still didn't understand why she couldn't do any of it herself, but, understanding what was happening wasn't her job, not any more. She had to get them to protect her, and she knew that she couldn't directly interfere until the final battles were upon them all.

She closed her eyes, and searched out with her mind and feelings for these select few people who she had to contact, and luckily, she found them all in the one building. She could also feel Angelus, gathering what would be the start of one of two armies, doing The First's work. She knew that The First would try to kill the girl tonight, that's why she had to get her people there first. She was vital. If they didn't get this girl, there would be too much power on the other side, and they would surely lose. It already looked like they were going to lose as there wasn't enough time to prepare everybody for the upcoming battles. She knew that they were in the beginning stages of the end. She looked above her, and she just saw clouds that were almost blacker than the night sky. She knew why they were there. The storm had to generate energy, enough energy to create a person from scratch and give them substance, a conscience, a spirit. Creating the body was the easy part. She heard the first claps of thunder above her, and sheet lightning spread across the sky in short but quick bursts. 

"So it begins," she said to no one in particular. She closed her eyes and felt out for the people she needed to reach tonight. Once she had found them, she let her feelings take over, splitting her apart and sending her to that location. She opened her eyes, and instead of having skin, she was shaped in energy now, and the tips of her fingers were breaking off into small balls of blue energy and heading to one point in the city below her. Soon, her arms were gone and she closed her eyes, and put all the energy she had behind the process, she had to hurry or she'd be too late. 

Outside the Hyperion Hotel, small balls of blue energy appeared just outside the front doors. They started to shape themselves into parts of a person, and over the time of a minute, there was a light blue human figure standing there, featureless. Where the head was, was just a human shaped ball of light, no features such as eyes were able to be seen. 

Fred was sitting having warm cup of tea after having to close up the hotel to the weather. She hadn't seen rain or wind like this, ever, and she knew that a big storm was coming. The television weatherman said that the storm had appeared out of no where and was caused by a large mass of warm air from the east meeting a large mass of cold air from the west, but Fred didn't believe that. She believed that they had no clue what was causing the storm. She was sitting in the foyer to the hotel, cup of warm coffee in her hands. She was turning over the events of the last couple of days in her mind. They now had Wesley with them after finding out second hand off a vampire in the streets that Angelus had returned. It had fitted, them finding the _Angel Investigations _card on the boat. They didn't know why Angelus was back, surely it couldn't be because he had experienced a moment of true happiness, that was for sure. What was the worst of all, they didn't have a clue as to where to start looking. Connor had tried to pick up his tracks, but he didn't find anything, meaning that Angelus was covering his tracks. 

She knew where everybody was, which was a good thing. They had started to prepare what they'd do if Angelus showed up at the hotel. It was a very good plan they had so far: Yell as loud as possible, and hope that everyone else comes to help. In all truth Fred didn't know what she'd do if Angelus showed up. A very loud crack of thunder disrupted Fred from her thoughts. She could actually feel her stomach rumble as it rolled overhead. She was thinking of going to be and trying to get some sleep when she noticed something at the front door. There was a pale blue light showing through the windows. She put her coffee down to get up and go and investigate when she was frozen in her tracks. A blue figure slowly stepped through the door and came towards her. 

"Who are you? What do you want?" Fred stammered out loudly. She could tell that the figure meant her no harm, but she was still scared of it. It slowly stepped towards her as it slowly took form. It was now in the shape of a woman, and slowly, features started to mould themselves into the figure. Fred was amazed at what she was seeing, it was like a person was being carved right in front of her. 

She couldn't believe her eyes as texture slowly came to the figure. It looked a tiny bit familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on who it looked like. Then, in a few quick moments, the transformation completed itself and Fred was left standing at a figure that greatly resembled Cordelia Chase, but with long hair. 

"Cordelia!?" Fred shouted in surprise, excitement, curiosity and apprehension. 

"Please, there's no time," Cordelia said over the top of Fred. "You have to go to this address," she said while rushing forward and giving a piece of paper to Fred. Fred grabbed the piece of paper as Cordelia thrust it before her, she barely had time to look at it when Cordelia put each of her hands on each of Fred's shoulders and shook her a bit. Fred looked at Cordelia. 

"Cordelia?" a voice said beside them. Both Fred and Cordelia looked to see Wesley and Gunn standing there, stunned. 

"There, you will find a girl, and you _MUST _protect her, at all costs," Cordelia continued, looking back to Fred. 

"Cordelia?" Both Gunn and Wesley said, again. Fred just stood there, stunned. 

"Listen to me! The fate of the world depends on this!" Cordelia exclaimed. "Don't worry about the fact that I'm back… just listen!" 

"Okay, what is all this about?" Wesley asked while approaching Fred and Cordelia. Fred was thankful that Cordelia backed off from her a bit. 

"Go to the address I gave to Fred. There you will find a girl, she'll be disorientated, terrified and confused and won't be able to defend herself… You _MUST_ protect her, even with your own lives if needs be. The First will be sending people out to kill her, and you have to get to her first!" Cordelia explained. "And most importantly of all, you have to keep her safe!" Cordy exclaimed. 

"You've got to be crazy, thinking we're going to go outside in this weather," Gunn said. 

"This weather is because she's being brought back! She has important ties to the final battle, and if you don't do this you'll all die!" Cordelia said almost shouting, getting sick of them not just listening to her. Fred saw her calm down and take a deep breath. "Just go, as fast as you can. You already might be too late," she said calmly now. Fred had moved past shocked, and was now at least thinking a bit. She took it to her to organise everyone.

"Wesley, you get the weapons… Gunn, you get the car… I'll look for where this place is," Fred said. They all moved off to do their respective jobs, and within five minutes, they were all in the car, save Cordelia, leaving the Hyperion Hotel.

Across town, Angelus was in the place where his small revolution began. He had to get the vampires in line, they were going out and killing as many people as they could without abandon. He should have thought of this sooner, and he had called a meeting. Or, what could be called a meeting. He had ordered that all the vampires assemble, and that he was going to give them instructions about how they were going to go about making their army, which, technically, he was. The room was filled with at least a hundred vampires now, which was good. It had meant that his revolution had grown in size over the last couple of days. That was one thing he was hoping would happen. That the word would spread that he was leading this army, and that that would swell its ranks. 

He got up the front, on the stage that he had erected to speak to the vampires in the room before him. 

"Listen! Everybody!" he shouted. The noise soon died down and he had the attention of every vampire in the building. "We want to make an army? Am I right?" Cheers went through the building and Angelus waited for them to settle down. "Then what are you doing? Going out and killing?" There was no noise after Angelus spoke this time. "The only thing you're doing by that is drawing attention to us… and before we've even started we'll all be killed off! Each and every one of us… we've got to lay low until we have enough numbers, and until we're told what to do! Or else the Slayer and her group will come here, and the other Slayer will come too, and the Watchers Council, and every other vampire hunter on earth, and we will have started a battle that we can not possibly win… We will take them over, but not yet, we've got to get stronger… so then we can win!" A loud cheer rose up within the crowd, and Angelus noticed that someone was standing beside him. It was an image of Druscilla, and Angelus knew that it was The First. It beckoned for him to follow it, and he did so. When they were in a back room, things started.

"Angelus. I need you to do something for me," it said to him while morphing into the image of Jenny Calendar. "There is a girl… you must get to her tonight, and bring her here," Jenny said. 

"Why?" Angelus asked. 

"Because she is important. She is one of the most important people in this whole apocalypse, and she can be used by either side, and I want to use her," the image of Jenny said to him. "You must hurry however… your former group is after her too, and they've already taken steps to get to her." Angelus knew that the whole deal to get him to lead the army by holding his soul at ransom was blackmail, but he was beginning to like the idea, of leading the vampire race to victory. 

He went back out into the main room and got two of the vampires he trusted the most. These two, after all, he recognised as his sires. He felt it a pity that no vampires of any power had joined the revolution yet, but he knew that they would come. 

They set out to get this girl that was apparently so important to The First. There was one thing keeping Angelus's motivation up however. Just before they had left, The First had threatened him, saying that it would return his soul if he failed in this mission. 

The rain was pouring down harder than ever now, and thunder was heard overhead almost constantly. Everything had battered down for the night, there wasn't a person or an animal that was outside tonight, except those that had to be. The small park was devoid of all life. Torrents of rain poured down, and the lowest points in the park had flooded long ago. The ground was covered in a shallow layer of water which was ever increasing. The trees in the park were tall, big and haunting, casting their seemingly menacing gaze down upon everything that would have come across them. 

In an instant, the rain, wind and thunder stopped, and the park was completely still and silent. To anyone who may have been passing by, they wouldn't have noticed as the effect was localised as the park shifted planes of existence, only for half a second, then reappeared in the world again. The foundations of life had been planted in the park by mystical forces, and from there, things started to occur in rapid succession to one another. The rain, wind and thunder resumed, and things started moving. Tiny molecules began to move together, attracting other molecules as they moved into a big clump. The very ground seemed to reshape itself around a blob of earth that had now formed in the park, no bigger than a fingernail. The blob grew into the form and size of a human being, and soon the material it was made out of, the earth, began to shape itself into a white hard substance. This formed the framework of the body being formed. It was it's skeleton. Tiny yellowish-pinkish specks of light formed above the body, and they swirled around the skeleton. More were forming and doing the same, which was forming the organs, nerves and skin of the human being. 

A rip in the air above the figure which now resembled a person appeared. The rip was white, and literally looked like a rip in the air. Through it, a singular mass of yellow energy came through and floated above the person. There were no features on this person yet, but the small yellow blobs of light were still doing their work, forming the fine details of the girl. Her eyes were formed, along with eye lashes and eyebrows. The yellow lights swirled around the girl from head to toe now along the ground. A large group of them entered the girl through the nose and mouth, and went to work inside, etching out the blood vessels and creating the brain. 

Once it was all finished, the girl lay there, spread out on the ground, eyes closed and motionless. There was now a body on the ground, being battered by the elements. The large mass of energy floated down towards the person, and in a flash it entered the body. As it did so, there was an earsplitting crack of thunder, which literally made the ground shake. A bolt of lightning hit a tree on the edge of the park, increasing the charge in the air, which made the infusion between body and soul possible. 

Moments passed where the rainfall lightened and the wind died down a bit, but there was still no movement from the body. Then, the chest of the girl started to rise and fall slowly, and colour came to her as blood began to be pumped around her body. Her breathing increased, and her hands started to twitch. She took in a deep breath and opened her eyes. 

Wesley was driving down the street at ninety miles an hour, and was barely in control of the car. Gunn was beside him, gripping on for dear life, and Fred was in the back. They didn't really know what they were doing, but they knew, from Cordelia who had just appeared on their doorstep and walked through the door that they had to get to this girl, and that apparently, everyone's lives depended on it. They were, at the most, a mile away, Fred guessed. There was a loud crack of thunder above, and Fred knew that something had just happened. The ground literally shook and she had to put her hands to her ears and Wesley almost lost control of the car. 

They were now speeding towards the address Cordelia had given them, rain pouring down still, but it had lessened. Fred didn't know how Wesley could see out the windscreen however, she certainly couldn't. The rain was coming down too heavy. Fred had seen in the street directory that they were looking for a park, but she didn't know why someone would be outside in a park in this sort of weather. They saw the park and they pulled up to it. As soon as Fred got out of the car, she saw who she hoped was the woman they were supposed to rescue, sitting up on the ground, looking around, confused. She rushed over to her as she realised that she was naked, and that there was something awfully strange about her. As Fred approached her, the woman backed away along the ground. Fred knew that she was frightened. She heard shouts behind her and spun around only to see another car pull up, and three vampires get out of it, one of them being Angelus. 

She was relieved that as soon as the vampires got out of the car, Wesley and Gunn had shot a consecrated crossbow bolt through each of their chests, turning them to dust. They then ran to Fred, both of them holding a crossbow in one hand, and a cross in the other, effectively keeping Angelus away. Fred rushed to the girl and put her hands on the girl's shoulders and wasn't surprised to find that she was shivering madly. She took off her drenched coat and wrapped it around the girl. It was at that moment that the rain started to bucket down again. Fred lifted the girl up onto her feet, and noticed that she had trouble walking by herself, so she put her arm around her and helped her to the car while Wesley and Gunn kept Angelus away. She put the girl into the back seat and got in the front and stated the car, beckoning for Wesley and Gunn to get in. Gunn ran back into the car first, leaving Wesley walking backwards towards the car, staring Angelus in the face. Fred knew that Angelus could easily knock the cross out of Wesley's hand, but she was guessing that he was smart enough to know that if Wesley's crossbow bolt didn't strike him in the heart, Gunn's would. Wesley backed into the car, and at the last moment, released his crossbow bolt towards Angelus, but he caught it with his hand. Luckily for them, he wasn't expecting a second crossbow bolt from Gunn as he shot it out of the window of the car. It hit him directly in the chest, on the opposite side to the heart, searing Angelus as it entered as the bolts had been soaked in holy water. Angelus stumbled backwards, ripping the bolt out of his chest, giving Fred enough time to floor the accelerator and drive away far enough so Angelus would not be able to somehow latch onto the car. 

They were racing back towards the Hyperion Hotel, going as fast as Fred could make the car go. She knew that they were safe, and she took the time between looking at the road to look over at the girl next to her in the front seat. She was huddled up in a foetal position, obviously cold. Anyone could easily tell that this girl was terrified beyond her imagination, and Fred didn't particularly want to know what she had been through. She could remember Cordelia saying something along the lines of her _coming back_, and from the look on the woman's face, Fred didn't want to know what she had come back from. Maybe she had been trapped in another dimension, like she herself had been. If so, Fred figured that it must have been one much worse than Pylea. She was startled when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Fred, you can slow down you know… it is only pouring rain," Gunn said to her. She looked at her speedometer and noticed that she was doing one hundred miles per hour, and started to slow down, knowing that they were safe, for now. Inside her gut, she knew that that small but brief encounter with Angelus had shaken her up, a lot. She had never seen Angelus before, and she barely saw him then, but she could tell by the changes in the way he walked and acted that she probably didn't want to meet him. 

Fred couldn't have been happier when they arrived at the Hyperion Hotel. She was guiding the woman they had found quickly into a room to get her some clothes as at the moment, all she had was Fred's jacket that she had given her. Fred could see that the girl was taking in all of her surroundings, and that she was a bit wobbly on her legs while walking. There was something wrong with the way the girl was acting though, she hadn't spoken a word, and everything seemed to startle her, and she had a distant look in her eyes. Fred motioned to her to sit on the bed, and it took a while before the woman understood what Fred was meaning. She told her that she'd be right back, and left the room, going to her own room to get some clothes. She picked out a pair of jeans and a warm long sleeved shirt, that looked like they may fit the girl, as she was too large for Fred's clothes. She also grabbed a towel so the girl would be able to dry herself before she got changed. She returned to the room, only to find that the woman was standing, looking out the window at the lights below; not like she could see much as the rain was still pouring down, cutting visibility short. She heard Fred shut the door because she turned to look at her. Fred handed her the towel, and the girl just looked at it, wondering what to do with it, before it seemed to just enter her brain what it was and what to do with it. Slowly, she started to dry herself, and once she was done, Fred lay her hand on the clothes she had put on the bed. 

"After you put these on, come downstairs," Fred said gently to her. She looked as if she was running on remote control, not knowing what to do, and she looked distant. "Do you understand me?" Fred asked. The girl looked at her, and then tried to utter out some words, but all that came out was gibberish. To Fred, it seemed as if the girl didn't know how to talk. Fred decided to leave the girl alone and go downstairs with the others, where hopefully Cordelia would have some more news.

When Fred returned to the Foyer of the Hyperion, there was no one to be seen except for Cordelia. Fred looked at her, out of view of Cordelia, trying to discern if it really was her or not. The last time she had seen Cordelia, she hadn't been able to turn herself blue and walk through walls, and she had short hair. 

"Cordelia?" Fred asked. Cordelia turned around to look at her. "Where is everyone?" Fred asked quietly. 

"They've gone to barricade the building. We figure that more will come here to try and get the girl off of us by force. They think that we can hold them off until sunlight, if they come," Cordelia replied. 

"Oh," was all that Fred said in reply. A silence grew between them until Fred finally broke it. "What happened to you?" she asked. Cordelia just looked at her, puzzled, and then realisation hit her. 

"Oh… I became a higher being. Looked down at everything for a while, until they told me what I had to do," Cordelia replied. 

"They?" Fred asked. 

"The powers. They told me what I had to do, and what I could know," Cordelia replied. 

"Oh," was again, all that Fred said in reply. "Don't hear that every day," she added. 

"Yeah, I know… and the worst thing, those powers, don't have any fashion sense," Cordelia replied. Fred just nodded her head

"Yeah, that's got to be the worst thing about being on a higher plane of existence," Fred replied sarcastically. 

"Totally," Cordelia replied. Another silence grew between them, until, it was Fred who broke it again. 

"So, what is it that they told you?" Fred asked. 

"I'm going to tell you all that, once Gunn, Wesley and Connor get back from the basement," Cordelia said.

"Well we'd like to hear," Wesley said coming into the room, followed by Gunn and Connor. They all stood around Cordelia, eager to hear what she had to say. She looked around at them all.

"Okay, I think you all may want to sit down for this," Cordelia told them all. Everyone but Connor sat down. 

"I'll stand," he simply said. Cordelia let everyone sit down and get comfortable. 

"Okay, right… The First is taking steps to start the apocalypse ," Cordelia said. 

"Another one?" Wesley asked, straight away. Cordelia just shook her head in reply. 

"No… this is _the _apocalypse. The last one. The final fight between good and bad. All the other _apocalypse _have been small minor distractions. In this one, there are two results. We win, or we lose. If we win, there will be no more, and vampires and demons will vanish from this plane of existence. If we lose, our numbers will have dwindled so much that the vampires and demons will control us, completely," Cordelia started to explain. 

"But, how can this happen? Why will the vampires and demons be gone for good?" Fred asked. "How is that possible?" Cordelia sighed before she began. 

"There is a certain balance of power that exists, and right now, it is in harmony. There are two sides to this power, none of which has a specific purpose but to exist. One power is more aggressive than the other, and you know it as Evil, although such a thing doesn't exist. It is just one collective power, and the earth was under that power until the dawn of man and the other power, which you know as good, although such a thing doesn't exist either. These two powers are in perfect alignment. For them to become out of alignment, the balance of power on the earth must tip in the favour of one of the powers. The collective subconsciousness of vampires, demons and all other things that abuse their power give to the overall power of "evil", while all the champions, humans and everyone else give to the overall power of "good". If the humans are killed off, the balance of power is disrupted and the dark power wins, taking over the earth, ruling again, as it once did. These powers are not specific entities, instead as I said before they are a collective unconsciousness. The more that believe in them, the 'stronger' they are," Cordelia explained. Everyone just sat around, taking in all the new information. 

"And since when did you learn all these big words? It would be good to have this in English," Gunn said. Cordelia just furrowed up her brow while looking at Gunn. 

"While I was a higher power, I actually developed an IQ," she replied. "And the _English_ version is that there's going to be a war, and only one side can win, and that win will be total and complete. No more fighting afterwards," Cordelia said. 

"You mentioned something about The First Army?" Wesley asked. "What exactly is that?" 

"Not The First Army doofus… The First is _raising_ an army," Cordelia replied. Everyone just looked at her blankly, and she guessed that another explanation was in order. "Okay. The First is an entity… well, not really… It is the source of all evil. It is a collection and personification of the powers of 'darkness', kind of. It's hard to explain. It has been there since the beginning of time, and it will be there at the end, except, for some reason, over the last decade or so, it has been able to appear in form now. It can take the guise of people that have died, and it can take on their roles, perfectly. It can become them, right down to the very last detail and memory…" Cordelia began. "It knows _everything_ you do, and it is incorporeal, so, if you have a strong mind and can figure things out, it can not physically harm you."

"So, why's this thing so bad?" Gunn asked. 

"While it can not physically harm you… it can mentally and emotionally destroy you. Anyone that has ever meant something to you, it can become. It will know your most intimate details about yourself, and can shake up even the most cold-hearted people. It can make you unsure of yourself, and manoeuvre you into the position it wants. This is it's most powerful weapon, the weapon of manipulation… It will make you believe you are doing the right thing, when in fact, you are doing the wrong thing. Watch out, it is smart, and will use all it can to turn you over to it's side…" but was cut short as they all heard a sneeze behind them. Fred turned to see that the girl was standing on the bottom couple of steps, hand on the wall to hold herself up, looking at everyone. Fred got up and guided her down to her seat, gladly giving it up for the girl. She saw Cordelia take a good look at her, and then turn back to everyone, addressing them all. 

"The First has many followers and assets. Already, it has caused significant damage to the Watchers Council," Cordelia said, and at this, Wesley stiffened. 

"How much damage specifically?" he asked. 

"The Largest Headquarters outside of England in Västerås, Sweden, has been taken over and all it's resources are now under The First's control," Cordelia said. 

"Control? How is it controlling the resources?" Wesley asked, alarmed. 

"I was just getting to that," Cordelia said. "The Lieutenants of The First, they are called _Syophers (Cy-o-fers)_ are the most deadly of all under The First's command. They appear as large black hooded figures, and are in charge of organising The First's attack against the human race. Not much is known about them, except that they can change into the shape of any dead person they touch, much like The First, but they can't keep up the image for long. They are deadly in combat, and if you encounter one, there is only one thing you can do… run! The sight of them induces a feeling of terror, but it is not real. Not much is known about what they really are, except there is a speculation that they are a different strain of descendants of The Old Ones mixed with humans, which once walked the earth many millennia ago," Cordelia said. "They have already started to move into position, and it is not known how many of these Syophers exist, but you can be sure that they all serve The First." 

"So, we're in the very beginning of the setup of the apocalypse?" Wesley said. 

"Oh, no, the setup is well under way. As we speak, Angelus's army that he has assembled already is increasing in it's number," Cordelia said. 

"What?!" Gunn exclaimed, causing everyone to turn and look at him. 

"Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you. It looks as if Angelus has been chosen to lead The First's army, or at least one of The First's armies," Cordelia said. 

"How exactly did Angel lose his soul?" Fred asked while sitting next to the girl, who looked like she was trying to understand what was happening. 

"It was extracted," Cordelia replied. 

"Extracted?" Gunn asked. 

"Yes, Extracted. Ripped out. Most likely by one of the many people The First is manipulating," Cordelia said. There was a large, long, awkward and strained silence as the reality of what Cordelia was explaining sunk into them all. Then, in a sincere voice, perhaps the most sincere voice any of them had heard from him, Wesley spoke up. 

"How do you expect us to win this battle?" he asked, simply and plainly. Cordelia looked at Wesley now, but spoke to the whole group. 

"You are not alone in this battle," Cordelia replied. "Already, an army is being formed on our side, even though none of the participants know what is happening," Cordelia replied. 

"How, where?" Wesley asked. 

"It's being raised in Sunnydale, by no one…" Cordelia started, but she was met with surprised looks from everyone. 

"Sunnydale?" Wesley and Fred asked. 

"Yes. At the moment, all potential Slayers are being instructed by their Watchers, who are being instructed by the Watchers Council of England, to go to Sunnydale and seek out Buffy Summers for protection. The Council doesn't know what is going on, yet, but they do know that their worldwide resources are under attack, and this includes Potential Slayers. All I know is that they will form the army to resist The First's efforts, but I don't know of any more details," Cordelia said to them all. 

"I doubt that the group in Sunnydale would be able to handle this alone. A government would barely be able to handle this," Wesley said. 

"Don't underestimate the Scooby Gang. They have been through a great deal since you have left Wesley, and they are up to the task," Cordelia replied. Fred could tell that she was now standing up by her roots, defending where she had come from, where as before, she never would have done that. "But there is one thing I didn't know about which I sensed right before I left that could change the tide of things a great deal," Cordelia said. 

"And that is?" Wesley asked her. 

"The First is manipulating Faith. It got her out of jail, and has aimed her against the Watchers Council," Cordelia said. Everyone just looked at each other as Cordelia continued. "One of it's agents sent a letter to her while she was in prison, saying that The Watchers' Council was going to kill her in order to get a better Slayer, and this caused Faith to break out," she started, but stopped when she noticed everyone looking at each other. "What?" 

"We ran into Faith… she said that The Council was going to kill her," Connor said, speaking finally. 

"Oh," was all that Cordelia said in reply. "Well, right now, Faith is in England, held captive by the Watchers Council," Cordelia explained. 

"That's a good thing isn't it?" Fred asked. "If she's being held, she cant damage them can she?" 

"That's exactly where she wants to be… You see, The First prey's on everyone's hopes, dreams and innermost insecurities. Faith believes that she is going to take this version of The Council down, and start a new one that treats the Slayers like people, instead of weapons, and believes that she can wipe her slate clean if she does this, believes that this is the path to redemption, when in fact, all she would be doing is great harm," Cordelia explained to everyone. "But a pity, there's nothing we can do about that… right now, our priority is her," Cordelia said while looking at the girl. "All I know is that she was made, tonight, again. Her body, her brain, all of it was created, tonight, out of nothing, and we must keep her safe…. I don't know any more than I have told you, but I know that it is of the highest urgency that she be kept safe at all costs," Cordelia said. 

"If her body was created tonight, what importance is she? Her mind is only a few hours old. What can she do for us?" Connor said. 

"I know that it is her memories that we must first recover, which will come in time. All our memories are in our soul, and while her body is new, her soul isn't. She is still the same person she was before she was brought back. She still knows things, but she will have to learn things. You all may have noticed that she has trouble walking, and doesn't speak much, and that is probably because, she either can't understand us, or she is too traumatised to do anything. I know that her learning will be highly accelerated though," Cordelia explained. 

"And what about…" Fred asked, but was cut off as a flaming bottle came crashing through the front door. Everyone jumped up, and instantly knew that the Vampires were here, looking for the girl. 

"What, not going to come out to play?" they heard an all too familiar voice shout from outside. "The boss is home!" 

Gunn raced downstairs into the basement, grabbing all the weaponry he could find on the way. To him, nothing was going to get past their barricade of the sewer entrance to the Hyperion's basement. 

Connor had raced after Gunn to the basement, but he returned, carrying a longbow and a quiver of arrows, plus a short sword which was strapped onto the belt of his pants.

"I'll go upstairs, start shooting at them through a window," he said. 

Wesley and Fred both grabbed a couple of stakes and a crossbow each, and they started firing through the broken panel in the front door at the vampires outside, but quickly gave up when they saw that the vampires were easily dodging the bolts as they flew out. 

"Can you do something?" Fred asked to Cordelia. 

"No… I can't directly intervene, yet," Cordelia replied.

"What do you mean you can't directly intervene yet?" Wesley almost shouted to her, while he was trying to cover the front door. 

"It'll tip the scales too much. I can't intervene until the final battles," Cordelia replied. Wesley was about to say something, but he noticed that some of the vampires outside were starting to move towards them. He signalled to Fred, and she understood his signals. She moved so she was perpendicular to the doorway, ready to shoot anyone from the side who came in the front doors. Wesley shot his crossbow bolt, missing the heart of the only vampire he had in his sights, but it hit him in the head, incapacitating it. He and Fred spun around as they heard murmuring from behind them. The mysterious girl was sitting, cross legged on the floor, chanting, using all her strength. A blurry sphere formed around the figure, and soon it slowly spread outwards until it was outside the hotel and still expanding. Wesley looked at the sphere, and noticed that one of the vampires touched it and instantly turned to dust. 

"She's a witch," Fred said. 

"And an extremely powerful one at that… look at this," Wesley said while pointing outside. The vampires were backing up, away from the sphere until it stabilised in one place. They all turned as they heard thumping at the stairway, only to see that Connor had rushed down. 

"What happened?" he asked hurriedly. 

"It appears that our mysterious girl knows some magick," Wesley said. "It looks as if it will keep the vampires away, for now." They all looked at the girl, who opened her eyes slowly, stood up, and looked at them all. 

"I-I-I-I don't know h-h-how I did it, it just c-c-came to me, just like this is…. S-s-s-speaking," the girl said to them all in a soft voice.

"You can talk?" Fred asked. 

"I-I-I can n-n-ow," the girl replied to her. 

"Here, sit down," Cordelia said to her, motioning towards the seat. 

Fred had just noticed that the rain had settled down a bit as they were sitting around with the girl, trying to get her to remember anything, which she couldn't. She didn't even know her own name, and she had described to them that she couldn't remember anything, that things just came to her. She had picked up her ability to speak from no where, which fitted with what Cordelia was saying, that her memories were locked away in her soul. 

They had all decided that they had to do something about the vampire army, soon. The vampires surrounding the Hyperion had vanished, but they knew that they'd be back with a way to get through the barrier. So it was decided that everyone except the girl and Cordelia would go out, hunting. In one singular group they would as many vampires as they could in a couple of short, few hours because soon, it would be sun up, and they all doubted that the vampires would be back that night. It was to be hard and fast, a surgical strike, as Wesley had put it. Fred and Wesley and Gunn were waiting for Connor to come back, who had gone up to the roof to see if he could see if there were any vampires hiding anywhere near the entrance of the Hyperion. When he came down, everyone started heading towards the doorway. Fred was stopped short in her tracks as the girl almost shouted at them all, when she was really talking to Cordelia. 

"Wait! I remember something!" She said. Everyone turned and went over to the girl, who looked at them all in wonder.

"What is it?" Cordelia asked in an unusually soft voice. 

"Willow."

____

So, yea, what'd you think of it! R/r please… Look forward to the next chapter "Just when things were looking up"

Oh, yea, this lil fact may surprise some of you… but can you believe I'm only 17?


	10. Chapter 9 Just When Things

Chapter 9

Just When Things Were Looking Up

There was one place in Sunnydale that radiates power, and that was exactly where she was headed. She needed more, and fast. The power was like a drug, encompassing her and drawing her in, making her crave more and more and more. She didn't know that this would keep up until the power got too great for her and destroyed her. She looked up into the black cloud covered sky as she walked through the streets of Sunnydale. There was a tingling in the air tonight, a sense of power. She could feel it, and she knew that some kind of great magickal event was occurring at that very moment, but it was miles and miles away. She would have done anything to be at that event, as the power surge from it radiated around the world. If she could have gotten her hands on that amount of power, there would be no one to stop her, nothing to stand in her way. But for now, the amount of power she had was sufficient. She could walk through the streets of Sunnydale unafraid of the things that lurked in the night, knowing that she could destroy just about anything that crossed her path. The only things that could stop her were Buffy and Willow, and luckily for her, Willow was out of town at the moment. 

Amy Madison saw her destination approaching in front of her. Images of years past flashed through her mind. Here was the place where she had just about grown up; here was the place that she had advanced in her magickal practices. As she approached, her senses heightened, and the hair stood on the back of her neck. She could sense something approaching her, and it too, had great power. 

"_Invisiralli,_" Amy muttered. The air around her shimmered and shifted, bending the light around it. Now, whatever was coming towards her wouldn't be able to see her, just a blur in the air. She looked into the direction that the thing was coming from, and she was shocked to see a large, dark hooded figure floating along the ground, down the street. Everything in Amy's body told her that this thing was a pure predator, and that she shouldn't mess with it. It passed her by quickly and Amy waited a while for it to be far enough away, just in case it may be able to sense her. "So there is something to be afraid of in this town after all," she said to herself before starting her approach to the ruins of Sunnydale High School. 

Once she was inside, she made her way down under the school, to the little thing they called The Hellmouth. She entered the remnants of the room that the entrance to the Hellmouth was located in. She placed her bag on the dirt floor and began rummaging through it, pulling out the necessary ingredients for the spell that she was about to cast. She was startled when she noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked up just in time to see the large hooded figure she had seen earlier. Its hand grabbed her neck, and easily it pushed her up onto the wall, pinning her in place. In front of her, an image of Rack appeared. 

"And what do you think you're doing?" Rack said to her. 

"I need more," Amy replied coarsely, hardly being able to breathe.

"You have to wait for more power, I've told you that," Rack said. He moved up closer to her, looking at her right in the eyes. Amy could hear something coming to the room they were in, and just at the right moment she turned and saw another one of the hooded figures coming, bringing with it a struggling vampire. The vampire was trying to get away from the figure, but the figure was easily too strong. Another hooded figure came in behind it, carrying with it a very large knife. Rack looked to all of them, and Amy then knew that she had been lied to the whole time. Whatever Rack was, he wasn't the ghost of Rack. He didn't have command over creatures this powerful even when he was alive, and as far as she could tell, he couldn't do anything as a ghost. 

"I've figured it out you know," Amy said to him. 

"Figured what out honey?" Rack asked back. 

"Who you are… you're not Rack," Amy said to him. Rack just laughed a little while approaching Amy. 

"I'm not now am I?" he asked her to her face, not expecting a reply. "Then how is it that I know you're dark little secrets then Amy. Remember the times you used to come to me, looking for a little _fix_. I remember seeing you then…. That total loss of control… You don't like to lose control do you Amy? You like to think that you're in control of yourself," He started. "Those times, you just let go, and weren't in control… I know that's what scares you Amy… and I know how to make you lose control," Rack said to her, sending a chill down her spine. 

Rack stepped back, and Amy watched as the hooded figure with the knife cut into the vampire that was being held. It collected the blood that poured out of the wound in a small glass jar. The hooded figure then put the jar down next to the Hellmouth and then faced Amy. 

It came towards her, slowly and menacingly. Amy just looked up at it in fear, trying to escape the grip of the other one, but she couldn't. In a flash, the knife shot out and cut Amy across the shoulder. The figure then started to collect the blood pouring out of her shoulder in another glass jar that it had acquired from somewhere. Pain seared through her being, but already her mind was working on fixing the damage. Her thoughts were concentrated on the energy around her, sending it to the wound to stop it bleeding and stop the figure from collecting enough blood. Somewhere, in the recesses of her mind in the part that was still thinking straight, she knew that if they didn't get enough blood that they would just create a new wound, but she didn't care. She had to close the one up that she had already. Before everyone's eyes, the wound started healing at an accelerated rate, due to magick. 

Fortunately, and unfortunately, the figure took the jar away before the wound closed. Amy was still being held by the other two figures as the last one went back to the Hellmouth and to the other glass jar. The figure poured the blood from the vampire and the blood from Amy together into one jar. It then stood above the Hellmouth and Amy sensed the change in the air. Power was being drawn to the dark hooded figure, right before it drank the blood in the glass jar. Around it, the hoods flew off and Amy saw a dark silhouette standing by the Hellmouth. It had dark skin and bright red-orange eyes and was bald. It was humanoid in shape and Amy Madison knew that it was lethal. The air shimmered around it, and Amy could no longer see the creature clearly, but she could see that it was undergoing a transformation. When the air cleared around it, she saw a twisted up gnarled face, looking back at her with pure savagery. Large fangs hung out of the mouth and Amy knew that it was a form of vampire. 

"The First. The First vampire. Called a _Turokhan_. The First of many of it's type to return to this world," an image of Amy Madison's mother said. It lunged at Amy, but one of the hooded figures struck out against the vampire, sending it flying into the ground with a loud thump. When it got up again, it did not look at Amy with the hunger that it had once had, but instead growled. Amy knew that there was something wrong about what she had just seen, but she knew that she would have to wait until later on to think about it, and have to concentrate on getting away now. 

Strangely, the Turokhan started to leave the room, along with the two hooded figures. An image of Catherine Madison was left standing above Amy, who was still on the ground. She looked up at her mother, waiting for her to say something. 

"Kill me," Amy said to her, half pleading. 

"Oh please. That would be too easy, to kill you, to taste your power," The First said to her. "To get that one step closer towards my goal," it continued on. It waited a while, looking down at Amy in disgust, making her childhood memories come back to her. "Killing _you_ would be too easy, a quick way out, for you… I still have plans for you yet," The First in the visage of Catherine said to her before disappearing. 

Just outside the ruins of Sunnydale High school, the Turokhan emerged onto the streets, looking around at the strange New World for the first time, being blinded by the bright streetlights, shielding away from them. A Syopher stood on each side of it, shadowing it. It could smell the sunrise, and ran off to the nearest piece of soft earth, burying itself in the ground to escape the harmful rays of the sun. 

All of them hadn't experienced this kind of silence and awkwardness ever before. Everyone in the room felt strange and out of place at the arrival of the three newcomers. Their story was a wild one, and no one knew what to expect after the previous events of the night. No one was willing to trust these people's stories. 

"So let me get this straight," Xander started while looking at the three girls sitting on the Summers' couch. "You're dormant slayers, and your Watchers have been killed and they sent you here for protection?" Xander said, hoping that he had gotten the story right. 

"Yes," one of them replied. Xander couldn't remember their names, their story overwhelming him. 

"Why didn't you get sent to the Watchers Council?" Dawn asked them, thinking that there was something wrong with their story. 

"Because, they're being attacked. Or so my Watcher told me," the same girl replied. 

"Yeah, but it's the Watchers' Council. They'd probably be the safest place to go to," Dawn replied to her. 

"They're being attacked, and they aren't winning. They don't even know who's attacking them," another one of the Potential Slayers replied. "Apparently, it's bad," she added. 

"Why haven't we heard of this? Surely they would have contacted you. You're their big gun. They aren't the Watchers Council for nothing," Anya said to Buffy. 

"I quit, remember… they probably figured I wouldn't help," Buffy replied, speaking for the first time. There was a long silence before anyone spoke again, everyone lost in thought. 

"Hey, that would make sense," Dawn said, expressing her thoughts out loud. 

"What would?" Buffy answered. 

"Why they would want Faith dead… They're being attacked, and they don't have their most powerful weapon… well, at least not under their control anyway… so, they want to get their own Slayer, to save their own hides," Dawn said to them. No one said anything in reply, everyone just adding the new information to each of their own thoughts. 

"But what could do something like this?" one of the potentials asked the room, specifically Buffy. 

"Bunnies!" Anya answered, receiving strange looks from the new arrivals. "Think about it. Who would expect the bunnies to take over? No one! They could take over the whole planet and run it without anyone ever knowing," Anya started, being perfectly serious. "We have got to strike back! We must launch a counter attack, at once, wipe them off of the face of the earth, once and for all!" she exclaimed. "We have to launch an attack, right now!" She said to everyone, urging them on. "I'll get the traps."

"Against the bunnies?" one of the potentials asked, not believing her ears. 

"Yes!" Anya replied. The potential's eyes just went wide. 

"Anya here's got a thing against bunnies," Xander explained to them all. 

"Riiight," the potential replied. Xander looked down at the potentials, not wanting to be in their situation. 

"There will be more," the last potential spoke, for the first time that night. "more of us… they're coming after us, the potential slayers. Trying to cull our numbers. All over the world, they're dying, being hunted down like animals," she said, her eyes distant. "It's after us. It can be any one it wants. It doesn't have form. It knows everything, even your darkest secrets. It's out there, coming for us, all," the girl said. Xander and Buffy's minds raced back to the events earlier that night and their encounters with Principal Flutie, Snyder and Joyce Summers. The girl looked up into Xander's eyes, and then Buffy's. "They killed her… They killed my mother, they killed my father, they killed my watcher. They took everything away from me, until I couldn't run or fight…… they knew what to do to weaken me… I-I-It knew things, things I haven't told anyone," The girl said, tearing up, the memories coming back to her. "No where's safe. Not even here."

Everyone stood around, not sure what to do. It was Buffy, who finally took charge of everything. 

"How certain are all of you that there'll be more girls coming?" she asked them. 

"Pretty sure," the first one replied. The others nodded their heads in agreement. 

"And you don't have any clue who, or what's after you?" Buffy asked again. All the girls just shook their heads in unison. 

"Okay, we have to get ready… I guess you'll all be staying here… we need to find you some space," Buffy said. "I'm think that whatever's after you is the same thing that we encountered last night," Buffy started. "But I can't be sure, this is Sunnydale after all." She walked off into the kitchen, and Xander only just noticed what she whispered to him. "We need Giles." 

They drove through the town, looking around them at the scenery for once. For Cassia and Giles, it was the same as everywhere else, but for Willow, it was greatly different. She hadn't seen much of the countryside of England on their way into the coven, as she was too traumatised to realise what was going on around her, but now she was doing much, much better. They were driving through the town of Bath, to Giles's estate, which until now, Willow didn't know he owned. They had all agreed that their best option was to get out of the country before the coven could do anything to them, if they dared. They were more concerned about Samantha and Montague getting out and coming after them. They had all decided to go to Giles's estate to pick up some of his personal belongings, then travel to the Watchers' Council and tell them about the situation with the coven: that they weren't all that they seemed to be and could be quite dangerous. From there, they would travel back to Sunnydale, where hopefully, they would be safe, as the Coven wouldn't dare send anyone up against the Scooby Gang. It amazed Willow how much of a reputation they had. She had found out from Cassia, that the Scooby Gang was known the world over. Of course, they weren't known as the Scooby Gang, something more along the lines of 'The Slayer's Group', but everyone knew that they weren't something to come up against. Especially now, having one of the most powerful witches in the world in the group.

Cassia had decided to go with them, as she had nothing left in England now, and she would really like to see America. 

Sitting in the car, no one said much. Giles and Willow were still reeling from the effects of their encounters with their ghosts, and Cassia didn't know what to do, and she was also dealing with her own problems. She was leaving the country that she had spent the first nineteen years of her life in, and would probably never see again. And what was worse was that she was leaving with two people she hardly knew, and from her now recent experience, she didn't know whether to take them at face value or not. She had taken the people at the coven for what they seemed, and they had turned out to be bad. She didn't know who to trust any more, and she hoped that she was making the right decision. Also, she would be able to meet the Slayer, which would be good, really good. She felt safe with Willow and Giles, but she was scared of coming up against Willow if she went off the deep end again. Hopefully, she would never see that happen again, but she wasn't sure. She was surprised at how quickly the town had disappeared, and how soon it was before they were turning down the driveway to Giles's estate. 

The back of a van is very boring and lifeless. That's what Faith had soon discovered after she had landed in England. They had taken her straight to an unmarked red van and shoved her in the back with two guards. She guessed that she was being taken to the Watchers Council Headquarters, where they would probably evaluate her. There, she would have to find a way to escape, and begin her work at taking the Council down. She didn't really have much of a plan, just do as much damage as she could while she was inside the Council, and then escape before they could catch her. She didn't know how she was going to do it, but she rarely knew how she was going to do anything before she actually did it: the opportunities always presented themselves, and Faith was switched on enough to make use of them all.

Suddenly, the back doors were pulled open from the outside, and Faith was awfully surprised, as she hadn't even felt the van come to a stop. The two guards held her by one arm each as she got up, and escorted her out of the van. To her surprise there were thirty or so people standing out the front of the building she was approaching. 

"Wow… didn't think I'd have a welcoming committee," she said to herself as she looked at all the people. She guessed that they all must have heard that she was coming in and came to see her for themselves. 

She was escorted directly into the building, and straight to an elevator, where she saw one of the guards press the button for the thirteenth floor. On the way in, she had noticed that there was a fire escape door, which obviously lead to stairs. She could use them to get out of the building if needs be. 

Once they had arrived on the thirteenth floor, the guards led Faith to a door, and shoved her inside and ordered her to sit. Looking around, she could just see a table and two chairs; there was nothing else in the room. She took the guards advice and sat down behind the desk, on one of the chairs. 

"Man, this is worse than prison," she said to no one in general, guessing that they had the room bugged or something like that. Faith knew that the Watchers probably thought she was crazy by now, having overheard some of their conversation on the plane. She was just about to get up and walk around when she heard a snapping sound. Her manacles had just dropped off her, having opened somehow. "Wicked cool," she said. She put her arms down against the arm rests, and heard another snapping sound and felt a tight pressure against her wrists and ankles. A wire had shot out of the chair and looped itself around each of faith's wrists and ankles. "What?" she said, confused. It was then that the door opened and a young woman in a tweed suit with dark glasses and her hair pulled back entered the room. 

"Hello Faith," she said. 

"Get these things off of me," Faith demanded. 

"Can't do that," she replied. 

"Well then, you know, these things don't look too tough. I might have to break out of them myself," she told the woman. 

"Go ahead, try. They're magickally bound to the chair, and they can't be broken," the woman replied. Faith just sighed and rolled her eyes. Faith sat there, looking at the woman, and the woman took the seat across the table from her. For what seemed an eternity, they just sat there, looking at each other. 

"So, Faith. Tell me why you decided to turn yourself in," the woman asked. Faith just sighed. 

"I've told you this already," she replied. 

"Tell us again," the woman replied. Faith just sighed again. 

"I'm sick of it. I'm sick of running from everyone. I'm sick of having to hide. I just want to live, and I figure that the only way that you Watchers are going to let me do that is if I cooperate with you one hundred percent," Faith replied. 

"Okay," was all that the woman said in reply. "Can you tell me Faith, what was the event that triggered this?"

"The letter the Council sent me," Faith replied. The woman looked at Faith confused. 

"What letter?" the woman asked. 

"The one that said you were going to kill me in order to get another slayer, one that will actually do her job," Faith replied. 

"I hate to disappoint you Faith, but we sent no such letter," the woman told her. 

"Well, I got one. And it was from Quentin Travers himself," Faith told the woman matter-of-factly. The woman just got up and left the room without saying a word, and leaving Faith there with a guard. 

The woman returned in a few minutes and took her seat across from Faith once again. She looked straight into Faith's eyes.

"We didn't send a letter like the one you described. We haven't done anything, and we have never considered killing you. We know that you went rogue, and we do not know what to think of you until we have evaluated you…" the woman started before Faith cut her off. 

"It would help if you spoke in English," Faith said. 

"In other words, we don't know if you're a threat yet, and if what you say is true, we didn't know the reasons for your surrender to us," the woman explained. 

"Okay," Faith said. "But if you didn't send the letter, then who did?" Faith asked. 

"We don't know… I'll tell you something, and I don't know if I should be doing this, but our resources across the world are under attack. All around the world, the Watchers Council is being attacked, and we don't know who's behind it, and we don't know what their purpose is, other than to destroy us. Whoever's doing that is probably the person who sent the letter to you, but for what reason, we can't guess," the woman said to Faith. Faith just sat there, handcuffed to the chair and took it all in. 

"Right, I get you," Faith said to her while nodding. The woman looked down at her papers for a while and then looked back up at Faith. 

"Faith, we're going to have to know everything that's happened to you since you received the letter telling that we were going to kill you," the woman said. Faith just took a breath and then started.


	11. Chapter 10 Future Passed vs Passed Futu...

Chapter 10

Future Passed vs. Passed Future

There were ruins everywhere he looked. He couldn't see a building that was standing upright without huge chunks taken out of the walls and even then, those buildings were rare. He knew that he was in a whole town of ruins, although what that town was called he had no idea. His preternatural senses couldn't detect any signs of life near him and for perhaps the first time in his life, Spike was scared. He didn't have a clue where he was and he was miles from any signs of life. The only sign of life that he had seen tried to shoot him with a crossbow bolt while flying down the highway on a motor cycle, and he didn't even want to think of how close he came to being a pile of dust. 

Spike noticed that there was an eerie silence over the whole town as well, nothing like he had ever seen before. Above, the sky was cloudless and Spike could literally see thousands of stars. Accompanying the silence was a stillness in the air. There wasn't even the slightest breeze. It was if there was no life what so ever in the town and that there hadn't been for years. Debris scattered the streets and there wasn't a street without at least a couple of hundred pieces of a building on it. Spike turned off of what seemed like the main street of the town to try to find a shred of life, or unlife. Anything was good to him. He needed to find anything that could tell him what had happened here, and where he was. Considering the events that had happened to spike over the last couple of days, Spike wasn't even sure that he was in his dimension or not. 

Hours had passed and the moon was getting lower on the horizon, and Spike hadn't found anything in the town that moved of it's own accord. It wasn't until he had returned to the main street of the town that something happened. He was walking to the largest building that was still standing, even if it had holes all through it, when he heard a noise behind him. Spike spun around to see a large figure standing twenty feet away from him. It was cloaked in a completely black hood and carried a scythe and reminded Spike of the grim reaper. He was scared of this figure and he just wanted to run, but something glued his feet to the spot. The figure was coming towards him, and Spike could tell that it didn't want to talk. He also noticed that it was floating. Spike advanced on the figure and ducked as it swung the Scythe at his head. He barely had time to react when the scythe was coming back the other way at him, and he had to jump backwards out of the way. 

"Fast bugger aren't ya," Spike said to the figure. His response was the scythe coming down from above to slice him in half. Spike tumbled to the ground and rolled out of the way. He quickly closed the gap between the figure and himself and pummelled it in it's chest, only succeeding in knocking the figure backwards a bit. This gave the hooded figure enough room to use it's scythe again, and it successfully left a deep gash in Spike's upper arm. 

He stumbled back, away from the figure just in time to hear the loud roar of a motorbike which was roaring down the main street towards them. He knew that it was the same person, or thing, that tried to kill him earlier. He heard the motorbike roar and saw the person on it raise their weapon in his direction. He was about to duck when he noticed that it was aimed at the hooded figure instead. In an instant, Spike saw a stake appear in the figure's side, and then another one, and then another one. There was a total of four stakes which were shot at the hooded figure, all which hit their mark, all of which hardly seemed to do any damage to the thing. Spike backed away from it more as it continued to float towards him. By now the motorbike had gone past him and the figure, and he heard it roar. He turned to look behind him and he saw the person on the motorbike squealing the wheels as they turned around. They came straight for him and the figure, and at in an instant they had stopped the motorbike and sprung off of it. Spike saw them raise their weapon towards the figure again, and he had time to notice it this time, it wasn't a crossbow, and he had never seen the weapon before. The figure from the motorbike shot a bolt at the figure, and then another, and then another. One of the bolts hit the hooded figure in the head, and successfully wounded it a bit. Spike could tell from the fact that it seemed to stumble backwards a bit. Spike watched the figure from the motorbike start to move towards the hooded figure, and shoot one more bolt at the hooded figure, hitting it in the hand and causing it to let go of it's scythe. 

"It's fast, watch out," Spike told the person. They didn't even take any notice of him as they passed him and started to attack the hooded figure. Spike was amazed at the skill and speed of the person attacking the hooded figure. He watched them exchange blows for at least a minute and could tell that the person was loosing ground, and fast. Spike watched as the person kicked the hooded figure in the side, and then came totally off of the ground, using their momentum to spin while in the air and use their other foot to hit the hooded figure in the head. This made it move backwards a bit. The person picked up it's scythe and stood facing the hooded figure ready to fight. In an instant, the hooded figure just disappeared in a swift movement, and Spike could see the person relax. "That was amazing," Spike said to the person. He couldn't tell who it was, as they were dressed in a full black body suit, and still had their motorbike helmet on, which revealed nothing. 

"What were you doing, taking on a Syopher, are you crazy, or was all your brain matter just destroyed when you became a vampire," the figure said to Spike while turning around. He was surprised to see the person just stop in their tracks when they obviously had looked at Spike for the first time. He could tell that they were stunned, but for what reason, he couldn't guess. "You," they just said. Then, before Spike knew what was happening, he saw a foot coming straight for his head. He didn't have time to even move before he was kicked back onto the ground. He could see the edges of his vision becoming black, and he knew that he was slipping into unconsciousness. The last thing he saw however struck fear right through him before he blacked out. He heard the motorbike's engine start up and come to life as the person roared off, and on the ground he could see a newspaper, and it said:

__

SUNNYDALE BULLETIN

6th December 2004


	12. Chapter 11 Strike

Chapter 11

Strike

The air in Los Angeles seemed different than the place that they had come from. There was an evil to it, and he could tell that everyone in their group could sense this. They had come from Qubec to see if the rumours were true; that a vampire army was being formed like no other that had been formed, and that Angelus was leading it. They were all vampires, all ten of them, and some of them were quite old and strong. That was one advantage with vampirism, the older you got, the stronger you became. Among them were some of the oldest vampires he knew, one of which, Malest, he knew was at least a thousand years old. It was he who had come up with the idea that they had now. They were going to approach Angelus, which they had all heard about, and make him an offer. Everyone in the group was to be given a leadership role in this so called army that was being formed, and in return, they'll increase the army's numbers as this small band of ten vampires that was representing the main vampire group of Qubec, _Vice_, which numbered in the hundreds. 

Malest knew where to go, he had been to LA before, and he knew the place that Angelus was said to reside. It was said that he resided in the underground of the city, and Malest was sure of the place which Angelus would pick.

The group was walking down a wide street which seemed deserted when they saw three figures come running around a corner, straight for them. Malest could tell that they were vampires. 

"Why are there vampires running from something in this city? The city where the most organised and the largest vampire army is meant to be under creation?" one of the vampires said to Malest. 

"I honestly don't know," Malest replied. The answer was soon given to them as another figure rounded the corner, and then three more came around the corner, obviously giving pursuit to the vampires.

The group just watched as crossbow bolts were fired and one vampire turned to dust. The group just stood back and watched what was going to happen. The figure in the lead closed the gap between the vampires and in a couple of seconds, another had turned to dust as the figure beheaded it with a sword. The last vampire was remaining, and it tried to attack the figure, but the figure was a better fighter, and soon the vampire was on the ground, and a stake protruding from it's heart. 

They all watched as the unknown figures grouped together to discuss their next move, not having sighted Malest's group further down the street. 

Connor was tired from chasing the vampires and fighting off the last one of the group. Wesley, Fred and Gunn couldn't keep up with him, and he was getting annoyed at that. Sure, he liked the fact that Fred and Wesley had crossbows and had finished off most of the vampire group from a distance, but he was sick of doing all the fighting. Connor was sure that Gunn would get into the action, if he could have kept up with him and gotten to the vampires before they were all dead. They had left the hotel, deciding that Cordelia and the new mystery girl would be safe enough. It was Wesley's idea to go out onto the town, hunting, and with one purpose, to kill as many vampires as they could find. So far, they had gotten eight between the four of them, including that last group. Unfortunately, however none of them had heard of Angelus's army that Cordelia had told them that he was raising under orders from The First. 

Connor sensed movement further down the road, and turned his head just in time to see a lone vampire coming down the road, starting to clap. 

"I'm impressed with your performance," he shouted out into the night. Connor heard everyone turn towards him, and could see Wesley and Fred raise their crossbows towards him and Gunn tighten his grip on his axe. 

"Explain to us why we shouldn't dust you where you stand?" Connor replied to the vampire. 

"Go ahead and try," was all that was given in reply. Simultaneously Fred and Wesley both released a crossbow bolt each, both of which headed straight for the vampire's heart. Amazingly, the vampire caught both of the crossbow bolts in each of his hands. Connor was surprised at this, and he was just about to charge at the vampire, but stopped dead in his tracks as he saw a number of other vampires coming towards them down the road. He watched as the vampire threw the crossbow bolts back towards the group. Wesley dodged one that was heading towards him. Fred didn't have that luxury however, the crossbow bolt hitting her in the lower leg. She screamed out in pain and fell to the ground, holding her leg. 

Connor sprang to his feet and charged at the vampire. When he was ten feet away from it, he jumped into a spinning kick which he was sure was going to knock the vampire to the ground. Instead, Connor fell to the ground after the vampire had caught his leg in mid air. Luckily, he still held his sword, and he struck out against the vampire, hoping to hit the arm which was holding his leg. Instead, the vampire saw it coming and with an unnatural speed moved his arm out of the way. Connor quickly jumped to his feet and without giving the vampire any time to think, was on him again. He successfully punched the vampire in the chest, and then gave it a hook across the face. In return, the vampire blocked Connor's next attack and pushed him away with so much force that Connor lost his footing, again, and fell to the ground. 

"You're not human," The vampire said to him. "You're too strong and fast for that. Why do you fight for them, you could easily come over to us… So much anger. So much hatred. It could serve you well," the vampire said to him. Connor sprang to his feet. 

"All that hatred. It's for one of you. One of you vampires," he just replied before he charged at the vampire again. Connor saw Gunn beside him, attacking another vampire that had come from the group that had been approaching them. It occurred to him that they were vastly out numbered, and that Fred was hurt and that they had to get out of the area immediately. Connor faked to punch the vampire, and actually kicked it in the kneecap as hard as he could, making the vampire go down onto it's knees. Connor raised his sword to take off it's head when he was spear tackled by another vampire and thrown to the ground. 

"You aren't going to kill Malest that easily," it said. Connor kicked it off of him and rolled to his feet, punching the vampire in the face and then tripping it onto the ground. He saw Gunn fighting off two vampires with his axe, and he saw that there were more coming from down the road. 

"Come on Gunn, we've got to get out of here," he shouted over to him. He ran over to Gunn and stuck his sword through the stomach of one of the vampires from behind, sending it to the ground. He then cut off it's head just as Gunn managed to cut off the head of the other vampire he was fighting. They didn't have enough time to make a retreat before more vampires were onto them. Connor looked over to see that the vampire that was called Malest was coming towards them. 

Just then, three vampires out of the group turned to dust, and Connor saw more figures approaching at a sprint from further down the street. He was surprised to see these new figures, five of them, attacking the vampires as well. 

"We've got help," he heard Gunn say to him. Connor just grunted in agreement as he moved to take on Malest. He put both hands around the handle of his sword and swung diagonally down, trying to hit Malest any way he could, but the vampire saw the attack coming and jumped back out of the way. This left a huge gap for the vampire to attack Connor, and too late, Connor realised this. He received a kick to his mid-section which sent him stumbling backwards and made him drop his sword. He saw a punch coming after that and successfully blocked it with his arm and hit back with an uppercut to the chest of the vampire, which hardly did a thing to it. Connor then received an uppercut straight to the face which sent him flying backwards onto the ground. When he looked up, he expected to see Malest coming for him, ready to kill, but instead he saw nothing. He sat up, and he noticed that all the sounds of the fight had disappeared, and that all the vampires were gone. He also noticed a hatch in the road to the sewer systems was open, and guessed that the vampire had escaped through that. 

He got up and saw that Gunn, who had blood pouring down his face and many bruises was approaching some of the strange figures that had helped them out during the fight, and when Connor had gotten to his feet, he could tell that they were all girls. He walked up to Gunn who had just reached the group. 

"Thanks for the help, if you didn't come we'd be dead by now," Gunn said to them.

"We just saw the fight from down the road and decided to help out," one of the girls replied. Connor noticed that they all carried equipment for fighting vampires. 

"And you were just walking down the street in the middle of the night, just happening to be carrying crossbows and stakes?" Connor questioned them, obviously suspicious. All of the girls looked at Connor for a few moments before one of them spoke up. 

"Our headquarters was attacked and destroyed by a group of vampires earlier tonight, and we were heading to a safe house that we were told to go to by our trainers," one of the girls said.

"Headquarter? Headquarters to what?" Gunn asked. 

"The Watchers Council," one of the girls replied. "We're potentials, and the Watchers Council's headquarters in Los Angeles was our home away from home, until now," one of the girls replied. 

"Potentials?" Connor asked. 

"Potential Slayers," one of the girls replied. After a confused expression from Connor, the girl continued on. "You do know what a Slayer is don't you?"

"Yes, we know both of them," Connor replied. He was met by baffled expressions from the girls. 

"You know the Slayers?" one of the girls asked. 

"Well, we don't really know them. We know of both of them," Connor started. 

"We've run into Faith a couple of times," Gunn said. "And one member of our group, he's an Ex-Watcher. He knows the other one, what's her name, Bunny…" he started

"Buffy," one of the girls corrected him. 

"Yeah, that's it. Wait, where's Wesley and Fred?" Gunn said to no one in particular. 

"Don't worry, I saw them heading the opposite way down the street, they should be safe," Connor said. 

"We'd better go after them and make sure they're alright," Gunn said. He paused for a second or two before continuing. "Do you all want to come with us? We've got a place, and it's safe, and we could use the added numbers." The main potential who had been doing all of the talking turned to her counterparts and they murmured a few words before she turned back to Connor and Gunn. 

"Yeah, we'll come with you," she said with a small Australian accent. Together, Connor, Gunn and the Potentials went down the street towards where they could see Wesley and Fred still moving in the opposite direction to where the fight had been.

Cordelia was showing the girl around the Hyperion Hotel, making sure that she knew where everything was in case there was anything she needed. Cordelia could tell that she was making progress, being able to talk more and more as the night went on, and being able to identify things more easily. She didn't want to press the girl on what she could remember yet, it was too early to do that and she knew that the girl needed some rest. 

After she had shown the girl around, she guided her to one of the couches where they both just sat down. Cordelia decided to tell the girl about what had happened to her while she was at Angel Investigations, and how it had changed her, both mentally, and physically. She didn't go into depth about what she was now, and her purpose in anything, she didn't want to freak the girl out too much. But Cordelia realised half way through explaining everything that the girl had collapsed in total exhaustion and was now sleeping upright in the couch. 

He looked down on the vampire in front of him, he could tell that the vampire was very old, but he didn't know what to make of him. If what he said was true, shouldn't there be more of them. Surely he wouldn't come alone from a vampire group so numerous as to what he said they were, surely he would have brought companions. 

"Yes, it is true. A vampire army is being raised here," Angelus spoke for the first time to this vampire that had come in off the streets. He claimed that he was the representative of _Vice_, a vampire group that resided in Qubec that numbered in the hundreds, and that if he was given a leadership position within the army, hundreds of vampires from _Vice _would join up. "But why did you come alone?" Angelus asked the vampire. 

"I didn't come alone. We were attacked in the street, by four people, a man and what seemed to be a teenage boy. He isn't human, he's too strong and too fast for that," Malest replied to Angelus. We outnumbered them, but then a group of girls showed up carrying crossbows and stakes, and they helped them finish us all off. I only escaped through a sewer entrance in the road," Malest replied. Angel knew that the girls were Potentials. The first had told him about the Watchers Council's headquarters that they had here in LA, and earlier that night, before he learned about the mysterious girl that he had failed to capture, he had told a number of the vampires that were in the army to attack the Headquarters. 

"How many of these girls were there?" Angelus asked him. 

"About four, or five. Maybe even six," Malest replied. He knew that they must have escaped from the attack against their headquarters, and he guessed that they would be heading back to the Hyperion with Gunn and Connor right now, making it even harder for him to be able to take the girl back again. 

"I accept your offer," Angelus replied to Malest. How could he turn down the offer to recruit literally hundreds of vampires at once. 

He left Malest alone, and walked into one of the back rooms. He needed to know how to take this girl from the Hyperion Hotel, which he knew now would be a very hard thing to do. 

"Now, now, Daddy, don't despair," he heard the all too familiar voice of Druscilla speak from behind him. Angelus turned to see the image of Druscilla standing before him. Of course, he knew that it wasn't Druscilla, but The First. "I've got a little present for you," it said to him. 

"A present Dru? And what's that?" Angelus asked. 

"Power," The First replied. "It had to happen sooner or later, you being the commander of my army now." In an instant, the image of Druscilla disappeared and an image that Angel had seen years ago in caves under Sunnydale, when The First had decided to haunt him appeared. It was a large demon, with glowing red eyes, and brown skin. It seemed to float above the ground and it was semitransparent. It rushed towards Angelus and entered his body, and he could feel absolute power coursing through him. He could feel himself getting stronger and stronger by the minute. He could feel his eyesight, hearing, and smell intensifying. Then, almost as soon as it had begun, it was over and Angelus was on the floor, gasping for air, even though he didn't need any to survive. 

"Now listen here," the image of Druscilla said again. "Tomorrow night, you will go to the Hyperion Hotel, and you will take a number of vampires with you, and you will take the girl from them, and bring her to me," The First said. 

"They've got a barrier," Angelus replied. 

"That's why you'll take them with you," The First said to Angelus. He looked up from the ground and saw three huge figures, cloaked in black standing before him, and next to the image of Druscilla. "They're called Syophers. They'll get you through the barrier."

Across town Cordelia sat opposite the mysterious girl in the couch, thinking everything over, thinking of what she had to do to prepare everyone, and what may unfold no matter which way the fight went. She knew that people were going to die, a lot of them, some of them which she cared about, but the ultimate goal was to prevent them _all_ from dying. She could sense something going on across town. She knew where it was, and with her mind's eye (the part of the brain which sees things telepathically or psychically) drifted to that part of the town and she observed what was happening as her eyes clouded over. 

Minutes later, Cordelia snapped out of her dreamlike state, her eyes instantly going back to normal. 

"Oh God, they're coming."

_______________

There's some more… Sorry for the 1/2 year wait until I updated again, but other things came up. I should be working on this more often now..

Good news tho, once I finish this story, I'm going to go back to my other Buffy Series (Slayers Series) and finish that off.

Next update should be coming soon

Read/Review plz. 


	13. Chapter 12 Watchers, Slayers and Scoobi...

So, this is the next chapter, and big stuff's happening. Tell me what you think of this chapter, and thanks for the reviews! They're much appreciated. I'll be trying to have an update every three-five days or so. I've got a really good idea for where this is headed. Enjoy.

__________________ 

Chapter 12

Watchers, Slayers and Scoobies

Ahead of them was a thirty-storey building towering up into the sky. It was made of bricks and had large windows forming the wall of every room facing the outside. They pulled up to the gate that blocked the entrance of the building to everyone that was not a member of the Watchers Council. After Giles' and Willow's encounters in the motel, they had decided to come straight here, report what had happened, tell the Council about the coven and hope to figure out what was going on. Giles showed his ID card to the guard at the gate, and he allowed them through. Once onto the grounds, they drove down a ramp to a large underground car park where there were cars everywhere.

"Wow, look at all this," Cassia said. 

"It is a big car park isn't it," Giles replied.

"Uh huh," Willow added as her comment. Together, they made their way towards the elevator which would take them up to the ground floor. 

Once on the ground floor, Giles walked up to the reception area and calmly told that lady that he was Rupert Giles and that he needed to see Quentin Travers and the leadership of the Watchers Council. 

"I'm sorry, but you don't have the clearance to do that," the woman replied to him. Giles just raised his eyebrows in reply. 

"Do you know who I am?" Giles asked in a rhetorical question. "I'm the current Watcher of the Slayer Buffy Summers. I do have that clearance, and what I have to discuss with Travers is of the highest urgency," Giles explained. "So, either you can let us through, or we can get ourselves through." The woman just sat back in her chair, in shock a little. 

"Um, okay. Just let me ring through," she replied while picking up a telephone. After a short while, she started speaking into it. "Yes, there's a Mr. Giles. Mr. Rupert Giles here to see Quentin Travers and the executives. Yes. Yes. Two others. Okay, I'll send him right up," The lady said into the telephone. "If you'll just head to that elevator and go up to the twentieth floor, you should be in the boardroom. If you'll just wait there, everyone should be assembled in a short while," the lady said to them while pointing around to her left. Giles, Willow and Cassia followed the lady's directions to the elevator. 

"Wow, Go Giles," Willow said once the elevator doors had closed. 

"Hmm. Well, yes. I needed to do something to get us in," Giles replied. The elevator doors opened and Giles, Willow and Cassia's breaths were almost taken away by the sight that they saw before them. They were facing a huge room, at least twenty metres by twenty metres. Along two walls were bookshelves filled with various volumes related to the occult. Another wall was just glass, and three huge chandeliers hung from the two storey high ceiling. 

"Wow," Cassia said. 

"Uh huh," Willow added again. Going around the room were benches with seats behind them, and there were enough places for at least forty to sixty people. 

Fifteen minutes later, after Giles, Willow and Cassia had all taken a seat, Quentin Travers and ten other people came into the room through a doorway that no one in the room had noticed. Willow, Cassia and Giles stood as they entered the room. 

"Good afternoon Rupert," Quentin Travers said as he shook Giles' hand. He turned to Willow and extended his hand. "Quentin Travers," he said as he introduced himself. 

"Willow Rosenburg," she replied. 

"Ah, I recognise that name. You're one of Ms. Summers' group. One of the witches," Travers said. 

"Uh. Um. Yeah. I'm, the witch now, and maybe not even that," Willow replied. She saw Travers just look at her, a bit confused. She knew that he was going to press her on that, but Giles, thankfully, distracted him by gesturing towards Cassia. Travers took in the girl and shook her hand. 

"Quentin Travers."

"Cassia Airedale," she said. 

"Why don't we all take a seat," Travers said while gesturing for them all to sit. Travers walked over to his seat, but didn't sit down. "So, Rupert. What do we owe the pleasure of this visit?" Giles stood up to address everyone in the room. 

"We have some urgent matters that need to be attended, and we need information," Giles said. He didn't allow anyone to ask him any questions or react in any way before he continued on. "The Coven of Witches in the Exmoor Forrest are being influenced by something. Something is bending the will of Samantha and Montague, the High Priestess and High Priest. The wellbeing of others and the world is not in their best interests," Giles started. 

"What exactly are you saying Mr. Giles?" One of the executives sitting around the table interrupted. 

"I am saying that the Coven is under the influence of something that is very dark. The coven, or more specifically Samantha and Montague, need more power. They were willing to try to drain the young Ms. Rosenburg here of all of her power and use it for themselves," Giles started while looking at Willow. 

"How exactly did this come about? Why were you and Ms. Rosenburg in the company of the coven in the first place?" another executive asked. Giles looked to Willow, and then replied,

"We came to the coven in order to further Will-Ms. Rosenburg's magickal abilities," Giles lied, although on a basic level, he was telling the truth. Cassia stood up next to Willow.

"C-can I speak?" She asked everyone in general. 

"Sure, go ahead, Ms…. Airedale," Travers said. Giles and Willow could tell that something came over Cassia as she stood up to speak, and she was no longer nervous or afraid. 

"I have been a member of the Coven that Giles has been speaking about for most of my life. I believed that we were there to study magick and further our magickal abilities and that we all lived with one another with no ill intentions. But about half a year ago, I noticed that Samantha and Montague's practices and attitudes changed. They became darker, and began doing things by themselves without telling the rest of the coven… I think they cast some sort of spell to influence the other members, and to get them to do what they wanted them to do. For some reason, if this is true, I wasn't influenced by the spell, and I noticed the other members changing right in front of me, and I started to distance myself from the coven, and started spending a lot of time by myself," Cassia explained. There was a short pause as she collected her thoughts and caught her breath. "I don't think that everyone was influenced by whatever happened. There are some, like Clifford and some others, who I believe haven't been influenced by whatever happened, like myself… The coven is working towards something, something big. I don't know what it is, but I know that it is in the best interests of the human race," Cassia said. She had finished and everyone met her with blank stares. "That's all I have to say," she said to everyone before sitting down. Giles continued on after Cassia's speech. 

"The coven in dangerous. They trapped myself, Ms. Airedale and Ms. Rosenburg inside a room by the use of magick. It was only because of Ms. Rosenburg that we were able to escape. And even then, they threatened us with crossbows on our escape. Again, it was only because of Ms. Rosenburg that we were able to get away and come here," Giles said. 

"So, you came here to advise us about a Coven of Witches?" one of the executives asked Giles. "I'm sorry, but we have more pressing issues at hand," the executive said. She was a woman with short black hair tied back and dressed in a tweed suit. Giles just looked at the woman straight in the eye,

"This coven of witches happens to be one of the most powerful in the world," Giles said. "Perhaps even the most powerful," Giles said. Just then, his face lighted up as he remembered something. "They also gave us some information. They know that something large is coming, and it is on a worldwide scale," Giles said, leaving out the bit where Willow was supposedly apart of it somehow. "We believe that Samantha and Montague know what is coming, and that they are working for him, her, or it." Giles said, finished. There was a long silence as everyone took in what Giles said. He was surprised to see Willow stand up next to him. 

"On our way here, Myself and Giles had an encounter with some Ghosts," Willow started. "I know what a ghost haunting is like, and I know what a ghost feels like, I've been one," Willow started, referring to the Halloween night that the Scooby Gang were turned into their costumes, Willow's being a ghost. "This was not a typical ghost haunting however. I had the sense that it was evil, pure evil. I believe that it has something to do with what Samantha and Montague told us about something coming. I don't know what it has to do with it though," Willow started. She wasn't going to tell any of them about her encounter in any detail, as she didn't want the Council to know about what had happened to her after Tara's death, and she didn't even want to tell them that Tara was dead at all. "It felt big, and very powerful, and it wasn't a typical ghost," Willow said. She just looked around at everyone in the room; at the executives; at Giles and Cassia; and at Quentin Travers. 

"I know that we've had our differences in the past," Giles started. "And that you don't approve of our methods, or in fact, anything that we do. But I believe that we need your help, and you need our help. As with Willow, I have the distinct feeling that whatever is going to happen is going to be huge, and that we need all the help that we can get," Giles said. Both he and Willow sat down in their chairs and waited for someone to say something. There was a very long and tense silence before Quentin Travers stood up and started to speak.

"We will tell you this," he started. "Worldwide, our resources are under attack. We believe that a number of our Headquarters in various countries have either been wiped out, or overtaken, and that the resources under their control are now in the control of the enemy, whoever that may be. We don't know as of yet…" he explained. Willow and Giles's faces had an astounded look on them. "The potential slayers and their watchers are being killed off all over the world, and we have instructed the small number that are still alive to travel to Sunnydale and seek out your charge, Buffy Summers for protection and training," Travers said while looking at Giles. "We believe that she and your group, will be able to guide them and protect them better than we could, considering your track record. We have overlooked the fact that her – I mean, all – of your methods are unorthodox, but they manage to get the job done."

"You're not serious are you?" Giles asked Travers. 

"Yes. I am deadly serious," Travers replied. We now believe that your group in Sunnydale is extremely efficient, and I admit, that we have been wrong about you all for quite some time. Now is not the time to let reputations and pride get in the way of trying to stop this," Travers replied. He was amused to see the looks of absolute shock on Giles and Willow's faces. "We also know, that for some reason, a large number of vampires are congregating on the area of Los Angeles, and rumour has it that a vampire army is being formed, but we are uncertain of the validity of that information," Travers said. "As for your encounter with ghosts, we believe you when you say that they weren't normal ghosts. We have had reports from many others of ghosts. From every report we have had in, the ghosts are someone who is special to the person being haunted, and the ghosts know everything that that person would know, and then more. We don't know the reason behind this phenomena, but we have people studying it around the clock," Travers explained. 

"I don't think we're up to this," Giles said to Quentin Travers. 

"We believe that you are," Travers said. "Together, your group has defeated The Master, has taken on Druscilla, Spike and Angelus together, and remained alive, defeated The Mayor and Faith working together, defeated the government's demon/human/computer hybrid, and defeated Glory, a Hell God, along with many others," Travers said. There was a long silence. "You also have the young Ms. Rosenburg here. If what you say is true, she was the main reason you have escaped from the Coven, which I am told is one of the most powerful in the world," Travers said while looking at Giles with an arrogant smirk. "And, she has successfully brought Buffy Summers back from the dead, without too many consequences from that. Most magick users who try something like that end up slip off the deep end and lose themselves in dark magick, and Ms Rosenburg here looks to have not suffered ill effects," Quentin Travers said. Willow saw Cassia looking at her with wide eyes, unaware that The Watchers Council didn't know what had happened to her over the last few months.

"You're not looking hard enough," Willow muttered under her breath. 

"We believe that you are fully equipped for this task… Of course, you aren't alone. The Potential Slayers will be a great ally to your group. Most of them can fight reasonably well, and display a lot of initiative. The Watchers Council will help in any way it can, and I am sure, that anyone else who can sense the coming evil will be on your side too across the globe," Travers said. 

Meanwhile, seven storeys below, unaware that Giles and Willow were in the building, Faith was lying down on a hard mattress looking up into the ceiling in her cell. The woman had said that she had to remain there until they had evaluated her case and determined if she was a threat or not. Faith knew that she had to get out of her cell to achieve her plan on taking the Council down, or go down trying to. She couldn't let them go on any further, and she was sick of getting treated like an object. She knew that she'd be doing the Slayers of the future a favour by doing this and starting a new Council. Although, she wasn't the one who was going to start up a new Watchers Council. She was sure that there would be people out there who knew of the Slayers and would put themselves up for the job, and Faith was going to make sure that _they_ knew how to treat a Slayer. 

"Hey darl', what's up?" A voice said to her. Faith sprung up out of her bed to find herself standing before the image of Whistler. 

"You," Faith said. 

"Yep, me," Whistler replied. "It's time to go Faith."

"Are you sure about this? I mean, how can I take the Council down?" Faith asked. "I've been thinking about it. How do I do it?" 

"Upstairs, on the twentieth floor are all the leaders of the Council. Just arm yourself. There is an armory in the basement, and then just go up there and finish them off," Whistler replied. "It's for the best Faith. They're up themselves, and they don't deserve the position of running the Watchers Council…" the image of Whistler started. 

"I don't want to kill anyone," Faith replied. Whistler just sighed and moved near Faith and sat down on the bed. 

"Come, sit," he said. Faith hesitantly moved to the bed and sat beside the image of Whistler. "Do you know what they're doing right now?" Whistler asked. 

"No I-," Faith replied. 

"You're not meant to answer that kiddo. It's a rhetorical question," Whistler said. 

"Huh. I wasn't good at the school thing," Faith said. Whistler just smirked.

"Well, anyway. What they're doing upstairs. They're going over what you wrote down, and what you told the woman out there. They don't believe it Faith. They suspect that you have ill intentions towards them, which you do," Whistler said. There was a long silence as the image of Whistler looked at Faith, and Faith looked back. "They're gonna kill you Faith." 

"What! Those Bastards!-," Faith started while she sprang up and started pacing, but Whistler cut off her outburst. 

"Faith. It's either them or you. You can stop this kind of thing from ever happening again," Whistler said. "The next meal that you have if you don't do anything will be laced with poison which will kill you in your sleep." Faith just said nothing and kept silent while she paced the room. After about five minutes, she finally broke the silence. 

"Okay. I'll do it," Faith said. "These mothas are going down." The image of Whistler just smiled right before it disappeared. 

His job was boring. There was no other way to put it. Standing around, looking at the wall was all he had to do most days, especially now. Just standing there, nothing else. On some of his jobs, he got a chair, but not today. He looked down at his watch and saw that there was still two hours to go before his shift ended. Being a guard sucked. 

"Hey you," he heard. He turned and saw that the prisoner he was holding was speaking to him through the small window in the door. "You want to come in for a little action?" the prisoner said. 

"No, sorry, no can do," he said back to her. 

"Come on. It's been too long since I've had a good ride in the sack," the prisoner replied. "I'll make it worth your while," she said to him before he saw that she had taken her top off. He looked at her and noticed that she was very attractive. Long dark hair, with dark eyes, a bit short and a lean figure. "_What can it hurt. She can't be dangerous," _he thought. 

"Now that I think about it.." he started while unlocking the door. He opened the door and made sure that it was shut behind him. He looked at the young woman backing away slowly and seductively towards the bed. 

"Come 'ere," she beckoned. In an instant, before he knew what was happening, the girl had closed the distance between them and had punched him between the legs. "So I'm a bit kinky," she said to him. The last thing he saw before he fell into unconsciousness was her foot coming towards his head.

Faith picked up her top and put it back on before grabbing the knife and keys from the guard that she had knocked out. She considered grabbing his gun, but didn't as she hated the things and the first time it went off, the whole building would be after her. She unlocked the door and peaked her head outside into the corridor. There was no one around, and Faith dashed down the corridor only a short way to the elevator. She prayed to whatever was out there that she would make it through this and wouldn't get killed in the process. 

Luckily, no one had needed to get on the elevator on the way to the basement, and Faith was surprised at how abandoned the basement seemed. She had crept out of the doors of the elevator and found the first cover she could find, and she immediately noticed the armory. It was a mesh cage the size of a room with various weapons hanging off of the walls and it was in the dead centre of the basement level of the Council's building. She could only see two people that were in the basement; one inside the armory and another walking around the basement doing something else, Faith couldn't tell. She decided to take out the one in the armory first, as the other one didn't have access to a huge range of weapons. She crept up to the armory, and was lucky that the entrance to it was on her side of the large metal cage, and that it was open. She snuck inside the door to the armory as quietly as she could and was lucky that the man inside had his back to her. In the middle of the room was a large table with assorted knives and swords layed out on it, while on the walls were guns. Faith snuck up to the man from behind and went to grab a knife off of the table when she bumped another one onto the floor. The man spun around and Faith put her knife back down on the table as fast as she could. Luckily, the knife that she had stolen from the guard was underneath her clothing and he wouldn't be able to see it. 

"Yeah, um. They want you up at admin," Faith said while looking at the man. "They said something about a pay rise or something, I didn't hear them properly." 

"Oh, okay," The man replied. He started to leave the room, and as he walked past Faith, she grabbed a knife off of the table and hit the man over the head with the handle of the knife. She looked at the knife, and almost dropped it. It was almost identical to the one that she had received from the mayor years ago. She put that knife back down on the table and grabbed another one the same size, but a different shape. She also grabbed a sword, which luckily had a sheath with it so she was able to carry it with her. She put the sheath on and then sheathed the sword. She saw out of the cage that the other person was in the basement still and hadn't heard anything. It was a large basement. 

Faith crept out of the armory and positioned herself so she was behind the other person in the basement, which she could now see was a female. She did the same thing that she had done to the man in the armory. She crept up as silently as she could behind her, but this time she had her knife drawn. In an instant, she grabbed the woman's left hand and twisted it behind her back and Faith the knife at her throat. 

"You will not scream. Scream, and I cut your throat. Make any sudden movements, and I cut your throat. You understand me," Faith said into the woman's ear. 

"Yes," the woman choked back obviously very shocked. 

"Is there any rope around here?" Faith asked her.

"Over by that bench ahead of us," the woman replied. Faith pushed the woman over to the bench and she saw the rope. 

"I'm going to release you for a little bit. Don't try anything. Don't try to scream, and don't try to fight. You won't win. I'm a Slayer and I won't hesitate to kill you," Faith said into the woman's ears. She slowly released the woman's wrist and then circled around so that she was facing the woman with the knife still at her throat. Faith took her eyes off of the woman for a few seconds to find the rope, and once she had seen it, she felt her wrist get wrenched to the side and the knife drop out of her hand. Faith immediately pulled her wrist towards herself, bringing the woman with her as the woman still hadn't let go of her wrist. Faith extended her leg and moved to the side effectively tripping the woman. The woman tried to get up, but Faith put her foot on the woman's back, forcing her down on to the ground. Faith could easily reach the rope from here, and she grabbed it while keeping the woman down. She grabbed the woman's arms and pulled them behind her back and then tied them together. Faith then grabbed the woman by the back of her shirt and hauled her onto her feet and shoved her violently towards the armory. "I told you not to fight," Faith said. She grabbed her knife off of the ground and grabbed the woman by her tied up wrists behind her back. She guided her into the armory, where she saw the woman look at the man on the ground, still unconscious. Faith grabbed the rope, and roughly tied it around the woman's head in line with her mouth, making a gag. She then pushed the woman onto the ground and tied her legs together. She tied the other man up in the same fashion and then locked them inside the armory. She marched towards the elevator and put her knife in the waistband of her pants and put her shirt over the top of it. She moved the sheathed sword around to the back of her so if anyone wanted to enter the elevator, they wouldn't see it. She entered the elevator and pressed the button for the twentieth floor. 

Giles, Willow and Cassia had concluded their business with the Watchers Council, better than Giles or Willow had expected. They had been advised by the Council to return to Sunnydale as the Council thought that Buffy and the rest of the Scooby Gang needed them more than ever. The Watchers Council had agreed to send a couple of Watchers, ones that were to be hand chosen by Giles, with them to aid with the Potential Slayers and research. The Council agreed to keep them informed of any developments that they uncovered towards the ghosts that had tormented them. Willow was pleased that they hadn't told them anything about what she had done with magick though, she was sure that the Council would detain her or something if they learned that fact. 

"Well, Rupert, Ms. Rosenburg, Ms. Airedale, I'll see you in Sunnydale," Quentin Travers said. 

"You'll see us in Sunnydale? You're coming to Sunnydale?" Giles asked. 

"Yes, we'll only be there for a short tim-," he started, but stopped short. Willow saw him looking towards the elevator, and she heard a sound of metal rubbing on metal, and she sensed danger. Immediately, she turned around towards the elevator and saw a figure coming out of it holding a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. 

"Faith!" Willow shouted in surprise. She saw Faith stop and turn towards them.

"Red? Giles?" Faith said in pure shock. In an instant, Willow, Cassia and Giles stood up and Willow grabbed hands with Cassia. 

"Standard holding spell," she just said to Cassia. Willow started to say something in another language, she could tell that Cassia barely recognised what she was saying, but she joined in. She could feel Cassia's energy, and it reminded her a lot of Tara, and she could feel strength from that. She held her hand out towards Faith, and the air shimmered around her and Faith was trapped in a sphere of invisible energy.

"What?" Faith said as she ran into it. She hit out against it and her fist hit an invisible barrier. 

"Faith, what are you doing here?" Giles said, alarm in his voice over the weapons in her hands. 

"They're gonna kill me-," Faith replied, but she was cut short as everyone in the room heard two sickening gurgling sounds. One of the watchers was holding a large dagger in each hand, and both of the Watchers next to him were dead. Everyone watched in pure shock and disbelief as the appearance of the man shimmered and his height grew taller and he changed into a large figure in a dark hooded cloak. On the other side of the room, the same thing was happening to another one of the watchers. Everyone just stood still, stunned and they didn't move until the large black hooded figures started cutting through everyone in the room. Willow just at one of the things and a feeling of pure terror came over her and she was frightened of the creatures. All of the executives in the room had scattered, and Willow saw one of them trying to fight the hooded figures, but was killed instantly. 

"Let me go!" Faith said. "I can fight these things," Faith said in pure desperation as one of them was headed her way. "Red!" she shouted to Willow, hoping to snap her out of it. "Willow! Let me go! I don't care about what I've done to you! I'm not going to hurt you! I'm just going to fight these things!" Faith shouted to her, her ideas of destroying the council had instantly vanished and she just wanted to save her own life, and maybe some others as well. Willow just looked at Faith, and thought that it was their best shot at the moment. She released the barrier of the spell with a few words and by releasing a bit of her own energy. She could feel the darkness of the creatures and feel the pure evil of them, and she knew that it was the same type of evil that she had sensed in the motel room with the apparent ghost of Tara. She felt hands guiding her towards the elevator and realised that it must have been Giles, as she could see Cassia. Willow saw Faith charge up to one of the large hooded figures and swing her sword at it. It blocked Faith's blow with one of the large daggers in its hand and while Faith's arm was raised, came down with it's dagger, cutting Faith deeply in the chest, near where the collarbone was. 

"Faith! Come on," Willow yelled at her, knowing that their best chances were if they had a Slayer with them, even if it was Faith. She knew that there was no hope of beating the figures that were killing everyone in the room. She couldn't use magick around these things, she knew that their mere presence was enough to make her go out of control. The vibe they gave off would influence her in greater ways than she wanted to imagine. Willow saw Faith come over to the elevator, holding the gash in her arm while blood poured out of it. She had dropped all of her weapons. Faith collapsed into the elevator, and Giles immediately pushed the button for the ground floor. Everyone in the elevator, Giles, Willow, Cassia and two watchers were looking at Faith as she pulled herself up to a sitting position on the wall of the elevator, still holding her wound with blood pouring out everywhere. 

"What were those things. I couldn't even lay a hand on them," Faith said. 

"We have to warn them to evacuate the building," one of the Watchers said. The doors opened to the ground floor and both of the watchers that were with them ran up to the reception desk and started shouting at the woman behind it to sound to evacuate the building. Willow couldn't get the last image she saw before the elevator doors shut out of her mind; that of Quentin Travers being impaled on a knife against the wall by one of the hooded figures.


	14. Chapter 13 Unlocking Potential

Hey all. Here's some new updates. Whatever I had that was lacking in the last chapters, I got back in this chapter.

NOTE: Don't jump to conclusions readers… It's bad for ya.

Chapter 13

Unlocking Potential

**__**

Brisbane – Australia

It was three in the morning, and the suburb of Southport in Brisbane's central area was almost dead silent. Occasionally, a car drove down the street every half hour or so, and occasionally a person would be seen moving about in the shadows. There was only one place that showed any activity at all. It appeared to be an apartment complex that was a little worse for ware, but only those who were ever allowed inside knew that the building was far from an apartment complex, and that one floor held the most up-to-date communications equipment available. Another floor was committed to weapons, a gym and sparring floors, and that the only apartments in the complex were outfitted with all the modern furnishings. The building was home to a select few that knew of the existence of vampires, demons and Slayers. This building was the Watchers' Council's outpost in Australia, and because of the recent events, security was extra tight. On the roof, there were three men on every side, all armed with crossbows and large knife each. Crossbows were aimed out of at least a couple of windows too on each side of the building. There were also a number of magickal wards and warning systems surrounding the building. The was home to at least seventy people, having living quarters in the apartments of the building, as well as under ground in one of the sub basements that the Council had constructed when they had purchased the building. Anything that came close to the building would be killed in a heartbeat, but unfortunately, the security didn't extend beyond the building's foundations. Inside, they were assessing the damages done to the Watchers Council. They had just received news hours before that the Headquarters in Västerås and Mexico City had been overtaken by unknown forces and that there was an attack at the main Headquarters in England earlier that day. They still didn't know who had done it, or how it had been done. But they did know that when the investigators entered the building afterwards, accompanied by an armed escort, there was no evidence towards the massacre except for the few eye witnesses who said to the official authorities that they didn't have time to see what was happening, but said to the Watchers what had really happened. The story on the news was that the whole executive board of a computer company was massacred in the building by gunfire, but the Watchers knew the truth; it was an attack against the Council by unknown forces. There were five centres that the Council had left, the one in _Brisbane – Australia_, they had one left in _New York – USA, Madrid – Spain, Moscow – Russia, _and _San Juan – Argentina._ Combined, they had little resources, and were safe houses for all the remaining Potential Slayers that had been discovered and who weren't dead or on their way to Sunnydale. The Outpost in Brisbane was home to three Potentials; two of which were out in the streets of Brisbane with their Watchers training.

Skye Slatcher and Michael Ryan had just turned down the street that the Headquarters were on; that their home was on. Skye was tall for her age and had long blonde hair and very blue eyes and a tanned complexion. She had a lean build as she had grown up on a property in Western Queensland, or the Australian Outback and her favourite activity was horse riding. Just under the age of nineteen now, Skye was one of the oldest current Potential Slayers. Michael had brown hair and brown eyes and had been in the Watchers Council since he was twenty. He had begun training to be a Watcher, but soon filed for another position in one of the Watchers Council's strike teams, but as he grew older, he had completed his Watcher Training, and now his charge was Skye.

Immediately after entering the street, they felt safe. The Headquarters was a fortress, and nothing was going to get anywhere near them once they were inside. They had both had a very hard and frightening night as both Skye and Michael had almost died at the hands of some vampires. It was the way they trained, both Skye and Michael would attack the vampires, allowing Skye to get training in fighting, while being relatively safe. Unknown to them, the ambush was set up by both vampires, and humans. It was an uncanny mix, but both vampires and humans were working along side each other as they watched the combat ability of Skye and Michael as they fought off the vampire ambush. 

Luckily for both of them, they were now nearing the Headquarters and everything that night could put behind them, and the promise of safety behind the Council's doors spurred them on. That's why they were so shocked when an explosion ripped through the building when they were no further than a block away from it. The feeling of safety vanished in an instant and was replaced with fear and absolute shock. They both knew that they had been followed by something on the way back to the Headquarters, they could both feel it, but they didn't know what was following them. 

An hour later, and Skye and Michael were helping the authorities to clear the rubble in hope of finding survivors, but Skye doubted that there would be any. The explosion was overkill, guaranteed to kill everyone inside the building. She looked over to Michael, but saw that he wasn't there and she stopped work and looked around the area which was filled with fire engines, ambulances and police. She saw her Watcher talking to a man who she thought looked suspicious, but she was pulled out of her thoughts by a shout from behind her. She turned around to see a fireman calling for people to come around him.

"I've found someone alive in here," he shouted. She raced over to the area to see who it was. After all the firemen had cleared the rubble off of the person, they pulled him out of the rubble and lay him on one of the ambulance trundle beds. He could see that it was Charles, the Watcher to one of the other Potential Slayers; Amy. 

"Charles, what happened? Do you know who did this?" Skye asked him, but he just groggily looked up at her and shook his head. She watched as the paramedics wheeled him into an ambulance and closed the doors. She hoped that he'd come through with no major injuries, but one part in her mind doubted it as he was covered in blood, and both his legs looked to be at odd angles. She watched as the ambulance pulled away, still in shock over the whole thing. She felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder and turned to see Michael behind her. She could also see a young woman, just her age beside him. She had long Auburn hair and a light complexion and Skye also noticed that she was dressed completely in black, and that she had enchanting green eyes that captured anyone up in them. 

"Skye, this is Amanda Tippin. She works for the Watchers Council and she has a safe place for us to go," Michael told her. 

"Just follow me, we'll take you to a safe house, and then out of the country. It was obvious that this attack was aimed at the Potential Slayers," Amanda said to them. Skye didn't trust this Amanda, she was too confident, and there was something about her that said that she could, and would kill without a moment's hesitation. Skye looked to Michael, who reassured her that it was safe, and reluctantly followed the girl called Amanda. They had walked maybe two blocks when Skye felt a wave of relief. Ahead of them were Rhonda and Jim, the other Potential Slayer/Watcher team that had been out that night. There was another man standing with them, dressed exactly the same as their escort Amanda.

"Rhonda, thank god you're alright," Skye said as she rushed up to her and hugged her counterpart. Rhonda and Skye were more like sisters than friends or team mates. 

"We have to keep moving and get to the safe house as soon as possible," Amanda said to them before starting to walk off. Michael and Jim followed her, followed by the two Potentials and then bringing up the rear was the escort of Rhonda and Jim.

They had walked maybe four hundred metres when Skye noticed four other people silently sneak into their group and start walking with them so that Michael, Jim, Rhonda and Skye were escorted by a circle of people. Skye didn't like any of them. They were all dressed in skin tight black clothing, and there was a predatory sense about every one of them and she didn't like it how silently they all walked, none of them made a sound. 

It was another half an hour before they reached the safe house and Skye guessed that they had walked maybe four or five kilometres. The safe house wasn't much, it was just a run down house that looked like it had been abandoned for years, and unlike the Council's headquarters, the inside wasn't any different. Skye, Rhonda, Jim and Michael gathered in what could be guessed to be the lounge room, and all of the other people who had escorted them had left, except for Amanda. 

"So, where are we going after here?" Jim asked. 

"Out of the country," Amanda replied. 

"But where?" Jim asked again. 

"Västerås. It is a city in Sweden and is our last stronghold. You'll be safe there, I promise," Amanda lied to them. 

"That's what they said about this one," Rhonda said. 

"I would suggest that you all get some rest. We leave at precisely nine tomorrow morning," Amanda said to them all, but it sounded like a command. Skye knew that something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it, or more likely, she was afraid to put her finger on it.

Two hours later, the sun was just rising in the sky, and Skye had hardly slept at all. Her nagging suspicion about Amanda and the rest of the people they were with wouldn't stop gnawing away at her mind. It was just about to drive her crazy. She decided that she'd go to the kitchen and get a drink and something to eat, at least that would give her something else to think about, hopefully. On her way there, she passed by a closed door and could hear voices behind it. By the sound of them, she could tell that one was coming from a phone that had a speaker on it, and she could tell that the other's was Amanda's. She pressed her ear to the door and listened. 

"Yes, don't worry. We have them. No, they don't suspect a thing. We shadowed them earlier tonight. That's fine. We'll be there soon. There's no need to worry, we have Skye Slatcher with us, and there is no way that she is going to escape. We also have the secondary objective; Rhonda Baker," Amanda said into the phone. There was a long pause, and Skye was about to leave, but she heard Amanda speak up again. "Samantha, Montague, don't worry, we'll arrive at the coven with them soon. I have to go."


	15. Chapter 14 Coming Home

Chapter 14

Coming Home

Darla didn't know what to make of what had happened to her. She had been brought back from the dead – no, make that the undead; again, by Wolfram and Hart, and she had been made into a vampire, again by Druscilla. Then she had been told that Angelus had returned and was making an army of vampires and that Spike had vanished off of the face of the earth, although she didn't care too much about that. She had also been told that her son, Connor was a teenager after being raised in a Hell Dimension for most of his life where time travelled faster there, and that he had extraordinary abilities and had teamed up with Angel's crew to fight Angelus and his vampire army. On top of all of that, she had been told that the final apocalypse was being formed with all these steps, and that Wolfram and Hart wanted a part in it, to make sure that they picked which side would win. And then, she and Druscilla were released onto the streets of Los Angeles, told to do whatever they had wanted to do. Just like before, they painted the town red, with blood though. Many nights, she and Druscilla drank to their heart's content and no one was willing to even try to stop them. The police presence had dwindled, thanks to Wolfram and Hart.

It was the latest thing that Wolfram and Hart had told her that made her confused. They wanted them all back together again; the four of them; Angelus, Darla, Druscilla and Spike. They didn't say why, but they said that they wanted them back together in a group. It was something that Darla was excited about and terrified about at the same time. After coming back from the undead, twice as a human had done many things to her, and apparently, she still had some of humanity in her. She could feel it within her, her soul. There was just a small part of it still there, and that was the part that was afraid. Darla thought of the damage that they'd do if they were all reunited together, and that shook the part of her soul that remained to the bones. 

She was dreaming, Willow knew that. She knew it by the way that her life was good, and she was happy, and that she was with Tara. It had sunk into her now that Tara was gone, and that she wasn't coming back, and that the only place that she would be able to see her again was in her dreams and memories. Suddenly, she got flashbacks, and she knew that some of them were from other dreams of her past and some were memories of events that had happened recently. 

__

"She is a part of you. She is holding you back. Without her, you will be great. Ultimate. She has entered your body, your soul. You need to get her out of there young one. Without her, there's no holding back. If you will not get her out, we will." Willow heard the voice of Samantha say. 

__

"They tried to take her away from me. The only thing I have of her left, and they tried to take Tara away from me." It was her own voice now, and Willow remembered saying it to Giles and Cassia at the coven

__

She was in a forest. No sign of civilisation around her. From the size of the oak, pine, and redwood trees around her, she guessed that the forest was ancient. To her right, a small gazelle looked up at her, and then darted off into the underbrush. She looked up and barely saw through the tops of the gigantic trees that it was a nice sunny day, although she could hardly tell from her position. She closed her eyes and just stood there, letting everything take her over. She could hear the sounds of the forest; the birds singing, the cicadas and crickets chirping. Apart from that, and her own breathing, there was silence. Suddenly, she was overpowered with emotion. The feeling was tremendous in scale, and although the feeling scared her, she liked it. Inside her, she felt at peace, as if this was the way it was meant to be. The girl then remembered that this is how it had felt before. Her mind was screaming out to her that there was something she was forgetting, but she couldn't 'put her finger on it'.

All of a sudden, everything snapped back to normal. She realised that something_ was showing her these things; telling her even. Now, she listened. _

In an instant, she knew that she had a second chance, but that this chance wasn't to be taken lightly. She somehow knew that if she got anything wrong this time, she, and everyone else, would ultimately be far more worse off than now. 

"The answers are right in front of you. You just have to look in the right place… You know what you have to do… You know what I'm talking about. Those who seem to aid you will be your downfall, and those that you know aid you will be your upbringing. You just have to see yourself, know your limits, and then, everything will be perfect," The girl said. "Clarity perceived is not clarity believed. Heed these words" The girl turned and started to go.

"NO! You can't go!"

"I will come back, and you will guide me back, but I am not who you think I am. Moreover heed these words" the girl laid her hand on her head and everything felt good. Nothing felt bad, and it felt as though nothing would ever be bad again. "Remember, I'm always there if you need me. You just have to know who to ask." The girl then shimmered into nothingness. 

Willow awoke with a start. She could remember the dream perfectly. The dream in which Tara had come to her and told her these things what seemed like a lifetime ago in England while she was at the coven. She was a little shaken up by the memories of dreams which were so vivid that they were exactly the same as real life, but Willow knew that she had to be calm now and not let these things get to her.

"Are you alright?" she heard from next to her. Willow turned to look at Giles. 

"Yeah, I'm fine," Willow replied.

"Good, because we're making our descent," Giles said. Willow just looked at him, surprised that they had reached Sunnydale in the plane so quickly. They had stopped off in Los Angeles on their way back from England, and they had considered going into Angel's to see how he and his crew was doing and also to inform him of the vampire army that was being raised in his city, if he didn't know of it already, and to perhaps drop Faith off with them. Both Giles and Willow agreed that Faith would have been better off with Angel's crew, but Faith pointed out the fact that she was in prison in Los Angeles and that if she was in Los Angeles, there was a larger chance that she'd get caught by the authorities. So Giles, Willow, Cassia and Faith agreed to go straight to Sunnydale. 

They were all waiting at the airport, accompanied by three extras who they barely knew, but who were standing back, watching from a distance at the group of them that were standing, holding a sign written in yellow crayon. They had barely had an explanation of what was happening, apparently one of their friends did something bad with magick and she was extremely powerful and had almost ended the world, but she went away to England to get better, and now she was coming home. That's what they had all picked up from the limited explanation that Buffy and the one that they called Xander had offered them, and the bits of conversation that they had all listened into.

Buffy didn't know whether to feel good or bad when she saw landing on the airstrip. On one hand, her best friend was coming back along with her Watcher who was like a father figure to them all. On the other hand, the only person who had defeated her in a fight was coming back, and the memories of Willow at that time would be triggered in all of them with Willow's presence again. She also thought that enough time hadn't passed for Willow, that the grief would still be with her too strongly. She knew that just about everything in Sunnydale that she'd see she'd connect with a memory of her and Tara together. It had been that way for Buffy after she had come back after running away to LA after having to send Angel to hell. Buffy also couldn't figure out why they were coming back so soon. It had only been a few weeks since they had left and the whole deal was over, and now they were coming back. Buffy was sure that Willow's recovery would have taken longer than that. She was pulled out of her thoughts when the first of the passengers started coming into the terminal of the airport. She looked across to Xander, to make sure that he had his sign up, but she didn't need to bother, he was holding up the 'Welcome Home Willow' sign, written in yellow crayon up as high as his arms could go.

More and more people started coming off of the plane, but there was no sign of Willow or Giles. Finally, after what seemed like everyone had come off of the plane, Buffy, Xander, Dawn and the three Potentials were left standing there waiting. 

"They mustn't have caught this flight," Dawn said. 

"Why wouldn't they have?" Xander asked. "Giles said that they'd be on this plane. Why wouldn't they be? Why would Giles be wrong? HOW could Giles be wrong? Giles is never wrong," Xander started. 

"I'm sure that there's a reason they missed the plane," Buffy said. Everyone looked at her. "They probably got held up somewhere. Or Giles got the time wrong. Or they might have stopped by to see Angel," Buffy said. "Giles is probably ringing home right now to tell us what happened." 

"Yeah, they probably stopped by at Angel's," Xander said. 

"We'd better get home so we know when they're coming," Dawn said. With that, they all turned and started walking towards the exit, slowly, and every one of them disappointed. They all heard a voice behind them, it was so soft and quiet that they all had to check to see if they had heard it. 

"Hey guys," Willow said softly while holding her bag over her shoulder. Buffy turned to see Willow standing there and Giles walking up beside her. She ran at her friend and threw her arms around her

"Willow! We thought you'd missed the plane," Buffy said to her. 

"No, just a little slow at getting off," she replied to the Slayer. Buffy pulled away from Willow and went and hugged Giles. 

"Giles! I've missed you so much," Buffy said. "You've got to stay this time." She pulled back from Giles and looked at him. He looked older somehow.

"I've missed you too," Giles replied to her. She watched as Xander shook his hand. 

"Giles!" he said. "It's been a long tim-," he started. "FAITH!?" Xander exclaimed. Buffy's senses snapped to attention at the sound of that name, and she looked past both Giles and Willow and saw her Sister Slayer coming up the walkway. Buffy could tell that there was something very different about her; the way she was acting, almost shyly. 

"Hey B. Long time no see," Faith said.

"Faith! What are you doing here," Buffy said to her. "Did you know that she was coming to Sunnydale? Did you know that she was on the plane?" Buffy asked Giles in rapid fire. 

"Yes, we did. She's with us," Giles replied. 

"She's with you?" Buffy repeated. "As in, you brought her here?" 

"Yes. There's a perfectly good reason, and a lot we have to tell you," Giles replied. "But I think it would be best if we wait until we get back to your house." 

"You're sure about this?" Buffy asked him. 

"Yes, we need Faith here," Giles assured her. 

Outside the airport, a pair of eyes watched as the Slayer's group exited the airport. They watched with a sickening curiosity, and once they locked onto a certain figure, the pair of eyes flared with anger. 

"She's back," the voice spoke before the car started and squealed off into the distance.

__________________

There's it.

Merry Xmas to all. Should have new chapters up soon

R/r Plz


	16. Chapter 15 Showdown

Here's the next chapter. In my opinion, it's pretty bad at the start, but gets really good at the end. R/R plz.

Chapter 15

Showdown

They couldn't be more ready for what was coming. They had spent all day preparing the place which they would have to defend with their very lives. This was it, if they lost this, they lost the girl, and Cordelia had said that they didn't want that to happen and she refused to think of what would happen if their new friend fell into the hands of The First. Cordelia and the new girl had spent all day going over various protection spells and spells that the girl could use to defend herself if she needed to. Cordelia was surprised at the girl's natural ability for magick and at how much she remembered about using it. It was obvious that the girl was remembering things from her past life, and that she had spent a lot of time studying magick. 

Gunn, and Fred had spent most of the day making crossbow bolts out of large pieces of timber. They had also put weapon stockpiles at various points throughout the hotel. Wesley had spent most of the day devising various strategies that they could use to defend the hotel, and then going over them again and again and again. The Potentials had spent most of the day training and learning from Cordelia what the whole thing was about and why they must protect the new girl. It was lucky that the three Potentials had agreed to help out, as they were both essentially fighting the same thing. Just before the sun had set, Cordelia and the new girl had strengthened the protection barrier around the hotel and added another one that Cordelia hoped would keep the Syophers out, or at least hold them off for a while. The others spent their time rushing around as Wesley came up with a new strategy on how they could exit the hotel and take out as many vampires as possible if needs be. 

The strange thing was that everyone knew the minute the sun was going to set. The Hyperion Hotel sat silent at sunset, and there wasn't even a sound to be heard in the building. As soon as the sun had set, everyone got into their positions. Wesley, Fred and one of the potentials were on the second floor, and were going to be shooting out of the windows. Gunn, Connor and two of the potentials were going to be held up on the ground floor, protecting Cordy and the new girl. They hoped that everything was going to go according to plan and that they would successfully fight off the vampires and the Syophers that were coming to them tonight.

They had headed out as soon as the sun had set. They came out in a number of seventy strong, and the horde that travelled to the Hyperion Hotel compromised mainly of vampires, although there were a couple of witches and three Syophers. He had received new instructions that very day to start recruiting others into the army, demons, witches and werewolves, although they'd only be useful on the full moon, but somehow that was to be corrected. They had heard the plans from Angelus at what could be considered their Headquarters – the demon fighting ring that Angelus had first started to rally the vampires for his army. The vampires had converged on the Hyperion Hotel from all angles, but when they were all within two blocks of the hotel, they all stopped. Angelus had told them this part of the plan. They were to stop and just make themselves look like ordinary people just going about their business until they got the signal to move in. 

It had been three hours since the sun had set, and nothing had happened. They hadn't seen a single vampire or anything that was going to come near the Hyperion Hotel. The anticipation in the air was so thick that you could cut it with a blunt knife, and as time went by, the anticipation and apprehension in the air just grew stronger. 

Malest didn't know what was going on. He didn't know why they weren't attacking the hotel this very minute. They should be using all their time that they could as the vampires couldn't be fighting once the sun came up, and it was already one in the morning. He couldn't understand why Angelus had told them all to wait. 

"Why are we waiting? We should have attacked them hours ago," Malest said to Angelus as he was looking into a shop window, trying to just look like another person out on the town at night. 

"For an old vampire, you don't know much do you?" Angelus asked Rhetorically. Before Malest had the time to answer, Angelus answered the question for him. "We're waiting because it builds apprehension in the enemy. They're all there, expecting us to come. Instead, we don't turn up on time, throwing all their expectations out the window and giving them time to think through things. By our waiting, we're making them nervous. And then, they make mistakes," Angelus explained. 

Half an hour later, Angelus shot a flaming crossbow bolt straight up into the sky, and the vampires began to converge on the Hyperion hotel, aware that they had to take the hotel by force and retrieve a young girl who apparently was very important to them and their army. As soon as they had rounded the corner and come within view of the Hyperion Hotel, vampires started falling, although most of them didn't dust. Crossbow bolts were flying out of the second storey windows, and most of them were hitting their target. Angelus knew that the closer they got to the Hyperion, the more accurate the crossbow bolts were going to become, and the more vampires he would lose. He was glad when he saw three large dark figures come out of the shadows to the left of him and approach the front gates of the Hyperion. Luckily, Angelus had prepared for the crossbow bolts. Five SUV's came screaming down the street and skidded to a stop in front of the Hyperion Hotel, and their drivers hopped out, who were revealed to be vampires. 

"Run to the cars! Tip them on their side and use them as cover!" Angelus shouted to his army. They all did as he said and ran to the cars, and in large numbers tipped them up on their sides, and crouched behind the cars for cover. He was glad that he didn't have to order his vampires to start firing back. They had come with crossbows and longbows themselves, and luckily, the vampires used their initiative and fired upon the Hyperion. What Angelus didn't expect however was that his crossbow bolts would be stopped by a magickal barrier around the hotel, which obviously let things out, but not inwards. Angelus looked to the Syophers, who got the message that they were needed. He watched in pure fascination as they darted from car to car, going so fast that they were almost a blur to the normal eye. He watched as they stepped up to the barrier, and extended what looked like hands out to it. Red-black energy spread along the surface of the barrier, growing in intensity. Now, the barrier around the Hyperion Hotel was visible, and this red-black energy swirled around on the surface of it. With a loud crack that sounded like a thunderclap, the barrier collapsed. 

"Go!" Angelus yelled. He got up from behind the cover of his car, only to see the Syophers advance on the hotel, and then just stop dead in their tracks. He watched as one of them extended their hand outwards, and were sent flying back with incredible force. So much force, that it impacted on one of the upturned cars and sent the car screeching backwards along the bitumen. "Get back behind cover!" Angelus yelled as he did so. He saw the two remaining Syophers turn around, putting their backs to the Hyperion, and zigzag back towards the cars, going the same speed before. The sight was surreal and unnatural, and Angelus was glad that they were on his side. He saw one of them look in his direction, and he just knew that the barrier was designed to keep the Syophers out. Suddenly, Angelus got an idea. "Malest!" he shouted at him. He watched as Malest bent low, using the overturned cars as cover, and came over to him. "Here's what I want you to do…"

Wesley watched from one of the second storey windows in astonishment as the Syopher got up and rejoined its companions. He had seen what the barrier that Cordelia had put up did to it, and nothing could have survived an impact like that. The car that the Syopher had hit was now almost bent in half, and he was sure that the roof of the SUV was touching the floor of it. He had tried shooting at the Syophers as they were bringing down the first barrier, but everything he shot at them was stopped by Cordelia and Tara's barrier as they manipulated it to defend themselves before they destroyed it. Wesley saw one of the vampire's head sticking above one of the overturned cars, and he also saw a crossbow pointing right at him. He ducked out of view of the window just as the crossbow bolt came through and smashed itself on the ceiling. He heard Fred let out a shout from behind him, and he saw her spinning out of the way of one of the windows as a crossbow bolt came through it. He looked at the two potentials and also saw that they were being fired upon. There was no chance that they would be able to return fire with the amount of crossbow bolts coming through the windows. He heard a crunching noise from outside, and then heard the sound of a car engine starting up, and Wesley understood then that the vampires were giving covering fire, so Wesley and those in the room couldn't stop them from doing whatever they were doing. 

The crossbow bolts stopped flying in through the windows, and Wesley snuck a look out the window. He saw a ute filled with vampires backing up away from the Hyperion Hotel. He knew what their plan was, and he couldn't do anything to stop it. 

"Won't the barrier stop them?" One of the potentials asked Wesley. 

"No. The barrier remaining is only meant for the Syophers and won't stop anything else," Wesley replied. He was met with a blank stare from the Potential. "The big dark hooded things," he added. "We have to move downstairs where we may be more useful," Wesley said while moving to help Fred along because of her injury from the encounter with Malest's vampires. 

As Wesley, Fred and the Potentials arrived in the Lobby of the Hyperion Hotel just as the utility truck filled with vampires came crashing through the front doors. Wesley looked around the Lobby and saw that no one was reacting because of the surprise of the Ute coming through the front wall. Taking the initiative, he raised his crossbow and shot towards the vampires in the back of the truck. He missed the heart, but he successfully wounded a vampire by shooting it in the leg. The vampires started jumping out of the truck and heading straight for Tara. Wesley was glad when Connor, Gunn and one of the potentials started fighting off the vampires. 

"We're not going to last here!" Wesley shouted, knowing that a lot more vampires would be coming in the hole in the front of the building any minute now. He heard a loud crack from outside, and in the next few moments, one of the Syophers came in through the hole in the wall. He raised his crossbow towards the Syopher and shot at it, but the crossbow bolt was deflected by a large ceremonial knife that it held in it's hand. He looked to the Syopher, which was now paying him some attention and he realised that he had sealed his fate by shooting at it.

"Everyone out the back, now!" Gunn yelled. Wesley saw that they were losing the fight against the vampires that came out of the truck, being outnumbered three to one. He looked to Fred who was leaning against a wall while trying to reload her crossbow. Wesley moved towards her and supported her. 

"Come on, no time for that, we've got to get out of here," Wesley said while starting to pull Fred towards the back. He looked to see Connor retreating towards the back door while fighting off some vampires, and he looked to Gunn, who was barely managing to hold off a number of vampires who were surrounding him. He saw Cordelia and the girl out of the corner of his eyes chanting something that he couldn't understand from where he was and suddenly, he saw all the vampires in the Lobby go flying backwards and hit the wall, leaving Gunn and Connor free to move about. "Come on, come on, let's go," Wesley shouted. The potentials were ahead of them, already heading out the back. 

Angelus saw the utility crash through the wall with a greater ease than he had expected. As soon as the ute had gone through the wall, he saw the three Syophers move up to the barrier again, and saw them starting to work on it. He knew that this was their chance of getting the girl that was apparently so important to The First's plans. He still didn't know what this girl did, or what her purpose was, or who she was, but it was important to The First, and what was important to The First was important to him. Well, it was if he wanted to keep his soul locked up in the _moping_ that The First possessed. Leaving the cover of the overturned SUV, Angelus started towards the entrance of his hotel. 

"Angelus, wait," he heard a familiar voice from behind him. He spun around to see the image of Jenny Calendar standing behind him in the street. "Don't go in there. Keep the vampires back." The vampire said. 

"Why? We could grab the girl and kill the rest this minute," he replied.

"That's not what I want. There's been a change of plans. It would be better if we let them all go, even the girl. They're going where I want them now," The First replied. "Don't waste any more of your men. Just let them go." Angelus just let out a grunt of frustration. He was tired of playing these games; being ordered around by The First. 

"Okay, fine," he replied. He shouted for the rest of the vampires to stay back. 

They ran down the alley way towards the street, where hopefully, they wouldn't meet any vampires or anything else that was threatening. They were almost at the end of the alley way, when a large figure stepped out from around the corner, blocking off their exit. They could all instantly tell that it was a Syopher. The Potentials, Gunn, Connor and Wesley all raised their weapons out of pure reaction and fear. It stood not ten feet away, towering at least a foot over all of them. As one, they began to back up when they heard a crash behind them and turned to see another Syopher in the alley behind them. They all saw it when the Syopher in front of them focused on the girl with them. They didn't consciously know it, but subconsciously they all knew that these things would kill them all in an instant just to get their hands on the girl with them. Slowly, a large blade appeared in the Syopher's hand. It glinted under the streetlight behind it, just adding to the terror of the situation. 

Connor saw that the Syopher wasn't actually inside the alley, but that it was just outside it, blocking their exit, and he saw his chance. He nudged Gunn and quickly whispered his plans to him, and then before anyone knew what was happening, he took off at a sprint towards the Syopher. The Syopher swung it's blade with inhuman speed straight for Connor's neck, but he saw it coming and ducked down out of the way while still moving forward. He travelled under the Syopher's extended arm and swung his sword towards it's mid section. Connor had never expected the plan to work. He had expected that the Syopher's weren't actually corporeal, but he was satisfied when his sword met resistance as it cut through the large robes that it wore and cut into something underneath it. A loud screeching wail filled the alley way as the Syopher screamed in pain. It was now half turned away from the group in the alley, towards Connor who was now behind it. Gunn saw his opportunity and swiftly approached it and buried his axe in it's back. Before anyone had known what was happening, the Syopher twisted around as fast as lightning, swinging it's blade as it did so. Gunn didn't have the time to get out of the way before the blade buried itself in his left shoulder, right above his heart. Connor saw his eyes go wide and he heard a gurgle come out of Gunn's throat as the Syopher wrenched the blade out of him. He collapsed to the ground holding his shoulder, barely conscious as the Syopher ripped the axe out of it's back and glided over the top of him towards the rest of the group. 

They all looked at the scene in front of them in horror as Gunn collapsed and the Syopher drifted over the top of his body laying on the ground. The Syopher smashed the axe against the brick wall of the Hyperion Hotel with such force that the whole thing shattered. They had obviously pissed it off, and it was through playing games with them. It came towards them with it's dagger raised as they backed away towards the other one which was at least thirty feet behind them. Fred watched as Cordelia moved to the front of the group and extended her arms outwards, seeming to keep the group behind them as they backed away, looking up at the Syopher. Fear was the main emotion in everyone in the group, except Cordelia who now stood still, away from the group and the closest to the Syopher. 

"You will not come any closer!" She shouted, seeming like she commanded it. A strong breeze entered the alley way as Cordelia stood up to the Syopher, only five feet or so away from it. "Run to Gunn, get him, get in the cars and go. You'll know when it's the right time to do so. Don't wait for me," she instructed the group behind them. She knew that the words barely sunk through to any of them but she hoped that they would follow her instructions. 

The group watched as the Syopher closed the distance between it and Cordelia, it's blade raised. Everyone in the group was silently yelling at Cordelia to back away and get away from it, but she didn't. She stood tall against it. The breeze in the alley strengthened. When the Syopher looked as if it was going to close the gap between the two and strike, Cordelia's skin and outer features just instantly vanished, leaving a blue-white figure in the shape of Cordelia made out of energy standing in it's place which resonated power. The Syopher had stopped dead in it's tracks, and as Fred looked behind her, she could see that the one behind them had also just stopped in it's tracks. She watched in fascination as the figure that used to look like Cordelia Chase began to break up into separate blobs of energy. At once, all the forms of blue-white energy moved towards the Syopher in an instant and seemed to enter into it. It screeched, louder than it had before, and everyone in the group had to cover their ears. 

The Syopher looked as if it had just been given a powerful blow to the stomach as it flew back into the wall. A battle was going on inside of it as it tried to fight off whatever had entered into it. Everyone watched astonished as it started to morph forms. It morphed into various people, which no one in the group knew were all dead. It shifted in front of their eyes almost every second, showing off it's various faces. Then, when they could tell that it had reached it's limit, the Syopher appeared to explode in a cloud of energy. Little bits of dark energy seemed to float off in every direction. Mingled with this were tiny blobs of blue-white energy.

Everyone in the group knew that now was the time that they had to move. As one, they all rushed forward past where the Syopher once was. Wesley and one of the Potentials were the first to get to Gunn, who was now unconscious from blood loss, severe shock and Wesley was sure of something else. They both lifted him up between them and took him to one of the cars which was parked just around the corner just in case they had needed to flee the Hyperion. Wesley was extremely surprised to find that they met no vampires on their way to the cars. They needed to take Gunn to a hospital, and fast, but where they would go after that, Wesley had no idea and he didn't take the time at that moment to think about it. His mind was rushing with thoughts of Gunn and what had happened to Cordelia and the events of that night and thinking of where the nearest hospital may be. 

The soft murmur of chanting could be heard within the Hyperion Hotel's lobby. It was in a language that wasn't even known to anyone in that world. Inside the Lobby, a dark figure was standing, surrounded by candles. As the chanting faded, the Figure of Jenny Calendar walked up to the figure, smiling. 

"That's it then?" The image of Jenny Calendar asked. 

"Yes, that's it," the dark figure replied. The figure was one of the dark witches that The First had managed to recruit into it's growing forces. Jenny Calendar stood in front of the figure inside of it's sacred circle. The First whispered something into the figure's ear before it plunged a hand into the figure's chest. The person's eyes went wide as she felt all of her energy being sucked out of her and into the supposedly incorporeal form that The First had chosen to show itself to her as. She looked down to her chest to see that The First's arm was literally inside her, and that there was a red and black swirl of energy travelling down The First's arm, and she knew that it was her own. "How-," was all that she managed to spurt out before she collapsed onto the floor, slipping into unconsciousness and death. 

"What's going on here," The First heard from behind it. It turned around to see Angelus standing at the entrance of the Hyperion. 

"Nothing. We're leaving. I've got all I came for," The First replied as it bent down and picked up something off the floor in the middle of the sacred circle. It was a _moping_, and inside it resided a little ball of blue-white energy.

___________________

Don't worry… there'll be explanations, in time. Read/Review please.. The more you do, the faster and better chapters will come blah blah blah. 

Psst… once again… DON'T assume stuff


	17. Chapter 16 Getting it Straight

****

Authors Note 1: There is a character in this who's name is spelled Daniel, but is pronounced _Dan-eel (as in eel that swims around)_. Some interesting developments in this chapter. We learn more about Skye (The Potential Slayer from Brisbane who was at the destruction of the Brisbane headquarters), and another group fighting the good fight is introduced. 

_______________________

Chapter 16

Getting it Straight

Everyone was standing around in the Summers' living room digesting the information that they had all shared. Buffy especially was pacing back and forth in front of the couch.

"So, let me get this straight," She started. "The coven is evil, and they trapped you, Willow and Cassie," she said while looking at Giles. 

"Uh, it's Cassia," Cassia said to Buffy. 

"Cassia… Then, Willow uses magick to bring the leaders of the Coven into the cabin where you were trapped," Buffy stated again, getting a nod from Giles, Cassia and Willow. "Where they told you that something was coming and that they had to get ready for it. But then, Willow breaks through the barrier and you manage to get away from the coven. How am I doing so far?" Buffy said. 

"Yep. That's about it," Willow said. 

"But, while this is going on, Faith here is running from the Watchers' Council, who say that they're going to kill her in order to get a better Slayer," Buffy stated while looking at Faith. Faith just replied with a nod. "And some ghosts told you to do it, and told you the plans on how to do it."

"B. They did! I'm not making this up!" Faith said immediately, knowing that it sounded bad. 

"I believe you. Honestly, I do," Buffy replied to Faith. There was a slight pause. "And while this is happening, Giles and Willow get visits by ghosts looking like Ms. Calendar and Tara." Another pause, and another nod from Giles and Willow. "And then you go to the Watchers Council and there they tell you that they're being attacked all over the world, and that something is organising forces everywhere, and that the Potential Slayers, like these ones here," Buffy said while pointing to the three potentials in the room. "Are getting killed all over the world, and have been told to come here, so I can protect them and train them." 

"Yes," Giles replied. 

"And then, Faith here shows up, ready for some action, going to take down the Council, when two of the members just change into these large hooded things and start killing everyone," Buffy said. She was met with slight nods from everyone. "And these hooded things are almost impossible to fight, according to Faith."

"They were, I could hardly get near the things. And even when I did, I was almost shitting myself B," Faith interrupted. 

"I believe you Faith," Buffy stated directly at her. There was a long pause as everyone still digested what had been said in the last hour or so. "And here in Sunnydale, I see three large, dark, hooded things kill a whole bunch of vamps. Then, we go out looking for them, and we get visited by Ghosts of our own," Buffy said while looking at Xander. Everyone looked at her stunned. In the time that they had all been back at the house, no one had told any of the newcomers about what had happened in Sunnydale. "And then when we get back, we find three potentials here, saying that they had been told to come here… You don't think any of these things are connected do you?" Buffy said in a sarcastic voice. 

"Yes, Buffy. It is in all likelihood that these events are connected, but we don't know how as of yet. The Coven may have something to do with causing this, but I doubt it. They said that they had to get ready for what was coming, and I'm guessing that it's something connected to these events," Giles started. "I propose that it's time for your favourite activity Buffy."

"What? We're going to the mall? Giles, I don't think it's open at this time of night, and that's not what I think we should be doing," Buffy started, but then realised that Giles was being sarcastic. 

"I'm talking about research Buffy," Giles replied. 

"Oh. _That_ favourite activity. I forgot about that one," Buffy said. 

"We need to research into these events, and I propose that we all start, right now," Giles said. 

"As much as I'd like to hit the books, I think that I need to do a bit more practical hands on research. I'll go around to all the vamp bars and see who I can pummel some answers out of," Buffy said while turning to go out of the room, trying to make a hasty exit. 

"Actually, I think that's a good idea," Giles said. 

"Good, because I'm going," Buffy replied. "And Faith's going to help me," Buffy added. 

"What!?" Faith exclaimed, but she got the undertone in Buffy's voice. She wanted to talk to her, and probably rev her about something, about everything that had ever happened in her life. She decided that she'd go with Buffy this time, but kept it in her mind that she could leave at any time. No one here really wanted her around, even though they put on the faces showing that they did. "okay," she quietly replied while getting up and following Buffy out the door. 

"What was that about?" Dawn asked. 

"Buffy and Faith need to… sort out some differences," Willow said to Dawn.

"And lets hope that they don't kill each other in the process," Xander added, speaking for the first time. It was Giles who got the remainder of the group to work once Buffy and Faith had left. 

"Willow, I need you to get onto the Internet and try to find anyone or anything that knows what is going on, or at least has a clue. Somewhere out there, someone must know what is happening, and I want you to try and find them. There must be a resistance or something forming against the attacks on the Watchers Council, and if I'm right, it's not only the Watchers that are being attacked. If there is anyone who knows what's going on, or any type of resistance, we must find them," Giles said to her, knowing that it was a long shot, but he had his fingers crossed. 

****

Five Miles from the Hyperion Hotel - Los Angeles – California.

The small group had just arrived in the city a few hours ago, travelling in their vehicles, two black vans with dark tinted windows. These two vans had served as a mobile home to a group of six people over the last two years as they travelled around the country helping those who needed help, and helping themselves in the process. The vans were equipped with communication equipment, allowing the occupants of the two vans to communicate with each other. The vans held a small arsenal of weapons and magickal supplies, plus had a small food store in each van.

Only minutes had passed since they entered the city before Michaela, a witch in the small group, knew where the trouble was. They all knew what was going down, and they had come to Los Angeles to help out. They knew that there was a group in the city fighting against the large increase in the vampire population, one of their members had run across them before and had known a couple of the group already in Los Angeles for a while. They headed straight for the area, and in less than half an hour they were there. Out the front windscreen of the first van, they could see a large number of vampires separating and spreading out in different directions. They saw a large group of vampires going away from them into a construction site, and decided to go after them. The vans accelerated towards them and screeched to a halt in front of the construction site. The door of the first van opened and two male figures stepped out of it. Immediately, the vampires had recognised that the vans had ill intentions towards them, and most of them had turned in the direction of the vans. The group of vampires was only small compared to the group that they had seen enter the construction site; only six or seven at most. 

"Two of you?" one of the vampires yelled out. Simultaneously the vampires started to advance on the two figures, and they moved in to attack, a stake in their hands. The two people were reasonably good fighters, but not good enough to take on two against seven odds, and the vampires knew it. 

"I'm going to make a meal of you," one of the vampires said to one of the people from the van.

"Like to see you try," he simply replied. The vampire knew that he could beat him easily enough. He had seen plenty of them in his time. Ordinary people trying to be heroes, but getting killed in the process because they believed that they were better than they really were. The vampire advanced on the person and before the person could react, he had landed an uppercut into his mid-section. He laughed as the person tried to fight back and failed hopelessly. Suddenly, he was sent flying backwards, smashing into a brick wall. The vampire looked up to see a woman standing in the doorway to the van, and he knew that she was a witch. He looked at her for a few moments before he saw the man coming at him, swinging his stake towards him. He spun out of the way and watched as the person effectively trapped himself against the wall. The person had no where to go, he had him. He slowly advanced on the man, surprised to see no fear in his eyes. "I wouldn't come any closer if I were you," the man said. He just ignored it and kept advancing. He was shocked to hear a primal growl come out of the man's throat, and he watched as before his eyes, the man's eyes turned yellow, his brow changed, his nose became longer, his ears became pointed, and fur appeared all over his skin. Before he knew what was happening, the man, or what used to be a man had ripped his head off of his shoulders with his bare hands.

Michaela watched as the tide of the fight turned and the vampires started turning to dust all over the place as the two figures ripped and teared their way through the group. Suddenly, she felt a wave of pure terror and fear spread over her, and she hopped back into the van and looked out the back window to see what she had expected. Three large dark hooded figures floated down the street, heading straight for the two vans and the small group. Guiding them was a vampire, in vampire face carrying a glass jar which radiated energy and gave off a small blue-white glow. She didn't know the purpose of it, and didn't want to know what it was for. She went back to the doorway and looked for her companions. Behind her, Nicola spoke. 

"Is it them? Are they coming?" she asked. 

"Yes. Get on the comm and tell Brett to go," Michaela replied. She looked out and knew that their companions wouldn't have enough time to finish off the vampires and escape. "Oz! Daniel! Syophers! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" She watched as the two werewolves turned to her, recognition on their faces and as they sniffed the air and then started running towards the van, morphing half back into their human forms as they did. Daniel reached the van first and collapsed into it. Michaela heard a motor vehicle pass by them and saw that the other van had started and gone past them, just as she had told Nicola to tell them to do. Oz stumbled into the van straight after Daniel. "Okay, they're in. Go!" Michaela yelled to Nicola, who was behind the wheel. With a squeal of rubber, the van lurched forward and started off to follow the other one. Michaela looked at the two men who were now fully transformed back into their human selves. She saw a large and deep cut bleeding rapidly on Oz's arm and rushed forward and crouched beside him. "Oz honey, are you alright," she said looking him straight in the eyes, a small space between their faces. 

"Yeah. I'll be fine. Let's just lose the tall, dark scaries and get out of here," Oz replied. 

"Okay, we'll come back to the Hyperion later and see if we can help out," Michaela said to him. They turned onto a Freeway entrance and sped off down the freeway, fully knowing that the Syophers could be on their tail, but too afraid to check. 

The graveyard was dark and cold, like all graveyards in Sunnydale usually are. There was one thing different about this graveyard though. It was still. There were no signs of life, or unlife, in the area save for two female figures walking through it. Apart from that, nothing stirred.

"So, why did you invite me out on this little venture," Faith asked Buffy. "I'm sure as hell that I'm not your favourite person to be around. So why? What's up?"

"I need to know why you're here Faith. Why did you come back to Sunnydale?" Buffy asked her. They kept walking as Faith was silent. She was deciding whether to tell Buffy the truth, or make up a lie which was probably more believable, to Buffy anyway. 

"I just ran into Giles and Willow, and they didn't seem to have anything against me. Well, y'know, with the big, dark nasties, all the stuff that had happened didn't really matter… and I just – I just stook with them until we came here. They treated me like I was a person… and also, because I'm seeking redemption and all, here's where I had to be. Here's the place where I hurt the most people, and here's the place where I have to make that up to them," Faith replied, deciding to tell the truth. The pair of Slayers kept walking along in silence. 

"Fai-," Buffy started, but Faith cut her off. 

"If you don't want me here, I can go. Just say so, and I'm off. I don't really like being around people who hate me. If you don't want to give me a chance, I'll go," Faith said. "And, you need my help. Those big, black things B, you can't go and take them on yourself. I tried and got no where except almost killed," Faith said. There was another silence as the pair of Slayers kept on walking. 

"You can stay Faith. But you've only got one chance. If you do anything to mess that up. If you do anything that makes you look suspicious…," Buffy started, not having to finish the sentence. 

Skye was sitting in the seat of a private jet that had left Brisbane airport just hours ago. She thought back to the events of the previous night. The destruction of the Watchers' Council's headquarters in Brisbane. It was tragic, and Skye was just about to break down. Most of the people she had known her whole life had been in that building, and as far as she knew, there were only a couple of survivors. She knew that there was something off about Amanda and their escort, claiming to be from the Watchers Council. They were too predatory, and there was something about them all that just gave off a wave of fear and control. Sure, they may be from the watchers. They may be their best team that they have, and that's why they were like that. They'd seen too much in their lifetimes, but Skye was sure that that wasn't it. There was something unnatural about each of them, and an unnatural look in their eyes. Now she was being taken to the other side of the world by these people, and the only people she could rely on and trust were Michael, her watcher; Rhonda, another potential slayer; and Jim, Rhonda's Watcher. These were the only people in her life that connected her to who she was. She was leaving everyone else behind: She had left everyone else behind. They were now over Indonesia and heading to Singapore for refuelling and a stop off. They had been told by Amanda that they were stopping off in Singapore for an hour to stretch their legs and refuel. Skye wanted to know about the phone call of Amanda's that she had heard earlier that morning. She wanted to know who Samantha and Montague were, and what it was about a coven that she had heard about, and if it had anything to do with them. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was, and her instincts were almost always right. Her great grandmother was a supremely powerful witch, and although Skye hadn't inherited any power from her, she had always been told by her mother, before she had been taken by the Watchers' Council, to obey her instincts. 

Skye couldn't believe the size of the Singapore Airport. She had only found out when they had arrived that Singapore had the largest airport in the world, and by the size of the structure she had seen out the window of the jet, she could easily believe it. They had walked to the airport terminal in one group from the plane. Skye noticed that they had their escort with them. Amanda and the other man that they had first seen last night. She knew that it would look suspicious if their whole group _escorted_ them into the terminal, instead they only had the two. Skye noticed that they had changed into relatively normal clothes, and the predatory sense of the pair escorting them had disappeared, and their unnatural grace had also gone. When they had entered the terminal, Skye had noticed that there was a small group of people, about four or so, looking directly at them. Three of the four were dressed in leather jackets or dusters, and they had a menacing look to them. 

"Come, this way," Amanda said, subtly leading them away from the group. Skye was wrenched out of her thoughts as Amanda spoke, realising that no one had said a word until that point. Skye saw more people ahead of them, moving towards them through the crowd, and she knew that someone knew that they were here, and who they were. She saw the realisation in Amanda and watched as she turned and looked back. Skye followed her gaze, and she knew that they were pretty much trapped. The group they had seen before were moving towards them from behind, and the people in the front were converging on them. 

"Keep walking, act like you don't know a thing," the man escorting them said from behind her. She did as she was told and watched as one of the people, a large and burly man, dressed in a leather duster stepped up to Amanda. She saw the gun that was subtly pointed at Amanda's stomach. 

"Let them go. Give them to us," the man threatened, simply and to the point. Skye looked to Amanda, and she got the predatory sense that was let off by the woman. With unnatural speed, Amanda lashed out and grabbed the man's arm which was holding the gun, twisted it behind his back, kicked out the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground, snatched the gun from the man and was now pointing it at the back of his head. Skye heard screams as the people around them saw the gun and spread out away from them. 

"Security's gonna be here in three minutes. I suggest that the rest of you vanish before they get here. If you're not gone by the time they come, his head's all over the floor," Amanda said to the other people that had moved in on them. Skye watched as they all backed away. "Get back to the plane," Amanda said to all of them. Skye backed away from Amanda, and she noticed, the same as everyone else was. When they reached the crowd of people, who were standing at a safe distance, a very safe distance, they all turned and almost ran back to the plane. Soon after, Amanda came into the cabin, and before the door was closed, they were moving off towards the runway. Nothing was said on how Amanda had gotten out of the situation, and no one was game to ask. 

They were crowded around the man on the floor. After the woman had held him hostage and told the Potentials to get back to their aircraft, the woman had knocked the man over the head with the butt of the gun, extremely hard and knocked him out. She then sprinted through the crowd and burst through the windows of the terminal and landed on the tarmac, two stories below and kept running. 

"Stand back, stand back. What's happened here," a security guard said pointing his weapon at the group. 

"Watchers Council of England. I need to speak with your superiors, right now. That plane heading onto the tarmac must not be allowed to take off and leave this place," one of the women of the group commanded while showing some official form of Id that the Watchers Council possessed. Of course, the security guard had never heard of the Watchers Council before, and nothing the woman had said had any affect on him. She watched hopelessly as the jet aircraft sped down the runway and took off into the sky. They would only have one chance to get Skye and Rhonda back. It was the top priority of every branch of the Council, and she knew that the jet was landing in Germany before continuing onto wherever they were going. 

It had all been a dream. A hopeless and nonsensical dream that had no purpose and no meaning. He would wake up in his crypt, nice and happy. There would be no other dimensions, and no crazy drivers of four wheel drives. There would be no people on motorcycles or large dark scary figures. And he wouldn't be in the ruins of Sunnydale one and a half years from now. That's what Spike told himself as he slipped back into consciousness but didn't open his eyes. Secretly, he was afraid to look, although he would tell no one that, and no one would ever find that out. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and when they were opened a fraction, Spike immediately jumped up, panicking and ran for the nearest shade. He was in shock as he looked up at the sky. He had been lying on the pavement during the middle of the day and hadn't burst into flames, and his skin wasn't even smoking. He looked around and realised that it wasn't a dream, and that he was in fact in the ruins of Sunnydale, one year from now, and everything that he had remembered had happened to him. 

"Shit. Just what I need," he said. He noticed that he under the remains of a shop's overhanging balcony above the doorway, and he guessed that someone lived upstairs. Or, that someone _had_ lived upstairs. He stuck his hand out in the sun and marvelled as nothing happened to it and that there was no pain. Slowly, Spike stepped out into the sunshine, and he revelled in it. "A Bloke could get used to this."

___________________

****

Authors Note: Well, will you look at that. Another chapter done. Oz's group knows about Syophers. I wonder what's happening there… hehe. (_And if you're wondering, it is the Same Oz from the TV show, the one who was Willow's Boyfriend for a long period of time)._ Skye and Rhonda aren't in the hands of the Council… or are they? Heheheheheheheehe.

Read/Review plz. Your comments are appreciated.

And no, sorry, I'm not gonna have Faith used as a weapon. I got big big plans for her. 


	18. Chapter 17 Congregations

****

Authors Note 1: Here's the next chapter. They'll keep coming from now on. I think that this is a relatively good chapter. Read/Review plz.. and thanks to all those who are already reading and reviewing, especially "Just me" I love your comments, and thanks to Queen Bodecia (sorry if I can't spell it), for reviewing a lot.

Darklight, don't worry, Faith isn't gonna let the Scoobies walk all over her, she's gonna have her own shit to deal with, and unless you're psychic or just take a random wild guess that's right, you can't have a clue what that is yet… the stuff that's gonna come up with her might make her leave the scoobies, or at least get forced out. She may not even be involved in The First's direct plan! Don't panic… but she aint teaming up with darla, cause, read the end of this chapter. 

_________________ 

Chapter 17

Congregations 

They returned to the Hyperion Hotel four hours after their encounter with the vampires and Syophers near there. They weren't surprised to find that there was no one inside and that the place was abandoned. Out the front there were still SUV's tipped over on their side which the vampires had used as barricades during the onslaught. There were blocks everywhere, left from when the utility truck had crashed through the front wall. Oz and Michaela both noticed the figure lying on the floor at the same time, and they approached it. It was wearing dark hoods and they couldn't see who, or what it was. 

"It can't be," Michaela said first. 

"It's not," Oz replied. "Doesn't smell like them."

"So, it's not a Syopher," Michaela asked. The figure on the ground was the same size and wore the same robes that the Syophers wore, and what Oz only guessed that Michaela was thinking was that it was dead; that someone had killed a Syopher, but that isn't possible. He watched as Michaela bent down and removed the hood. Under it, it was revealed that it was only a person, and that they were obviously a witch. The girl had jet black hair, and her jet black eyes were staring out into nothingness. 

"Hey. Oh, who's that?" Naomi asked from behind them. Naomi was short with shoulder length blonde hair and green eyes. She was perhaps the best fighter in the group, apart from Daniel and Oz when they were in their wolf forms. She and Brett were the only people in their group with no supernatural abilities. Oz and Daniel were both werewolves, and had both learned to control their transformations, while Nicola and Michaela were both witches, although Nicola wasn't a witch in the typical sense. She replied on her innate magickal ability as an extension of her senses, and didn't like to practice magick, unless when Michaela needed help. "Nasty." Brett added while he looked down at the girl. "What happened to her?" 

"She let dark magick control her," Nicola spoke up. "It does that to a person. If they don't have the proper training in using their abilities, all kinds of things can go wrong."

"She served The First. Leave her," Naomi said, having no feelings to anyone who was under The First's persuasion. It had led her mother to commit suicide, but not before taking her father and brother with her. 

"We don't know that," Michaela said to Naomi. 

"From what Oz says, would you think these people would harbour someone like this," Naomi retorted back.

"She's right Michaela," Daniel added. "Leave her. She's not worth it. Let the authorities handle her." With that, they moved on and explored the rest of the Hyperion, in search of any signs of life, or any signs that the group had gotten out of the hotel before any harm could have come to them. 

An hour later, they all returned to the Lobby, none of them having found anything that could have said that Angel's crew hadn't made it out of the building alive. 

"We have to find them," Daniel said. 

"And how are we going to do that exactly?" Brett asked, "This city's huge. Where are we going to start? Why do we even need to find them at all?"

"We came her to help. The vampire army is being raised here, we all agreed to come here and help. Here is where most of The First's plans are being laid out. It is here where we can do the most damage," Naomi said to him, frustrated. 

"I know that. I'm with that, really I am. I agree. But we've done fine by ourselves so far. Why do we need to find some people we don't even know," Brett replied.

"Because we need the numbers. We're safer in a larger group, and Angel's one of the best damned fighters you have ever seen. We need to team up with them. Together, we can do far more damage than apart," Oz said. 

"This is over. We've already gone through this time and time again. We aren't discussing this any more. We're here now, we've got to concentrate on the events happening around us," Michaela said. "Now, we have to look over here, it looks as if there's been a lot of damage done," she said while pointing towards the back entrance. 

They came to the alleyway and at once Nicola stopped dead in her tracks. 

"There's been a lot of energy expended here," she said while looking around the place. "A hell of a lot." Oz watched as she stood and looked around at everything for a few moments, seeing things that none of the others could, not even Michaela. She was amazing at reading signatures of anything that had been in the area, it came with her great innate magickal ability. "There were Syophers here," she suddenly said. "More than one… and, there was something else…," she said while closing her eyes. "It feels, different, somehow… it feels, the opposite," she said, hope easily detected in her voice. "It feels like… I can't explain it. It feels exactly the opposite. Like something extremely powerful," she described. 

"What? Something worse than a Syopher?" Daniel asked. 

"No… something better… something for our side," Nicola said in pure wonder. It was a revelation to all of them that there was something powerful on their side. That they weren't alone in this fight, and that there was hope. For the whole time that they had been fighting against The First's efforts, they had been doing it pretty much alone, occasionally with help from outsiders. They only heard about others fighting along side them, like Angel's crew. They had only heard that they were in the city, and that they were trying to slow down the rising number of vampires, even if they didn't know the full impact of their actions. They only heard stories of the Watchers Council's efforts to fight. They never saw it. There was never any evidence that they weren't in this alone; but now there was. 

"What else can you sense Nicola?" Brett asked her. She closed her eyes again and let her senses and mind open wide. 

"There were people here… They were scared… The Syophers were close to them… Something bad happened… someone was hurt… There was, something dark amongst them… something human, but not human… but it is on our side, I'm fairly sure… There's something else… Something distinctly new, but not new… a baby perhaps… There's something dark in the air," she said while opening her eyes. She looked around at everyone again, before she closed her eyes and opened her mind, stretching her senses and psychic ability to it's maximum. Everyone around her could sense her power, and if anyone was watching from a distance, they would be perplexed as to how naturally it came to Nicola. Her Psychic ability was great, a nice side effect of her magickal ability and years of using natural magicks. "There's something in the air… something very dark… A Syopher! The remainder of it's presence is floating around in the air, and dying!" Nicola said. She opened her eyes and looked at everyone. She saw fairly perplexed eyes looking back at her. Inside, she felt a hope that she had never felt since they had all entered this fight at least three quarters of a year ago, if not more than that. "Don't you get it! A Syopher was killed here! They can be destroyed!" She said in pure elation. 

"Killed? Are you serious?" Naomi asked her. 

"Yes! Killed. Destroyed. Vamoose. No more. Dead. All gone. Ripped apart. Gone!" Nicola exclaimed while almost jumping up and down. They all took a moment to revel in the news. For all of them, they had almost lost hope. They had been fighting a losing fight for a very long time, and it had taken it's toll on all of them. It wasn't until half an hour later when they finished celebrating and got their minds back on track. 

"Okay. There were people here. Probably this guy that Oz speaks about's crew. You say one of them got hurt, right. So, where would they go to? A hospital. We've go looking in all the hospitals close by, and we should probably find them," Daniel said. They walked out of the alley way out to the vans which were parked on the opposite side of the street. 

"We split up. Brett, Naomi, you two go east. We'll go west," Oz said. They moved off to their respective vans, but before anyone got into their vans, Brett came running back to Oz and everyone. 

"Bad idea," he simply replied. Oz just looked at him funnily. "None of us know what this group of Angel's looks like. You're the only one who can identify them," Brett said. 

"Oh. Okay, bad idea. We stick together then," Oz replied before Brett went back to his van and Oz got into his. They headed off west towards the coast while both Michaela and Naomi had the street directories out in their respective vans looking for the nearest hospital. 

They had all been standing around in the hospital for a while now, and there was still no word. Gunn had sustained a serious injury, completely severing an artery where the Syopher's knife entered his shoulder, and he had sustained heavy blood loss. The doctors had been operating on him for at least an hour now, and the people waiting outside in the ward hadn't heard a word. 

Finally, a doctor came out and approached the group. Wesley, Fred, and Connor got up and went to the doctor. 

"What's taken so long?" Fred asked him. The doctor understood their frustration. "Is he alright?"

"He's fine. He sustained a major injury. The main artery that carries blood to his arm was severed, and we had to stop the blood flow before he lost too much blood. We don't have any blood left in our banks, the large number of blood loss victims we've had over the last few weeks has drained our supplies. He's fine now though, a little groggy. He will be free to leave within the next hour or so, but we recommend that he stays here the night, and that he does no major activity in the next few days. He needs his rest," the doctor replied. 

"Can we see him?" Fred asked him. 

"Ah, no. Not right now, sorry, he's sleeping and he needs. It would be best if you wait until he wakes up," the doctor replied. They agreed that they'd let Gunn rest before the went to see him, and half an hour later, they were still sitting in the waiting area, when Wesley spoke up. 

"We have to leave here," Wesley said. He got looks from everyone in the room, even the potentials. "We can't stay in this city, it's too dangerous." 

"What!?" Connor exclaimed. "Why? Why do you think that?" 

"We can't stop it what's happening, not by ourselves. Think of it. There were at least fifty to seventy vampires out there tonight, and I have a feeling that there's more in Angelus's army…,"

"And those things… those, Syophers. We can't hurt them. Gunn buried his axe in it's back, and it pulled it out and smashed it against the wall," Fred added. 

"We can't stay here. We'll just get killed. The vampire number is still growing. I suggest that we wait until Gunn heals enough for us to move him, and wait until Cordelia returns to us…" Wesley started. 

"If she returns to us," Connor interrupted. 

"I'm sure she will," Wesley said. "We wait until then, and then leave the city. We go and get reinforcements, and then return and make our stand." 

"There's one problem. Where are we going to go? Where are these reinforcements going to come from?" Connor asked. 

"Sunnydale. We'll go to Sunnydale. We'll get Buffy and her group on our side. With them, our strengths combined, we should prove a formidable foe," Wesley replied. "And, Anita here remembers something about Willow. Perhaps something will come of that," Wesley said, using the name that they had agreed to name the new girl that they were meant to keep safe. It had been decided that her name should be Anita because they all liked it and the girl took a good liking to it. 

"This Buffy that you all have told me about. If she's so great, and if she's The Slayer, why isn't she here already? She's the Vampire Slayer. Here's the place with the most vampires in it. You'd think this would be the place she'd be," Connor argued. 

"She has her own problems. They all do. Remember that Cordelia said that all the Potentials were going to her for protection. I'm sure that they've all got their own problems going on," Wesley replied. 

"So what makes you think they'll drop everything and come here?" Connor fought back. He wanted to stay in the city and fight against Angelus and not let him get too much of an upper hand. If they left the city for only a few days, Angelus would have the city to himself, unopposed. No one would know what was going on, and no one would stand against him to stop it. 

"We just have to hope that we can convince them that Los Angeles needs a cull in the vampire number, which I think should be relatively easy to do," Wesley said. 

"I agree with Wesley, Connor. We need reinforcements," Fred said. Wesley looked to her, thankful for her agreement. "But," she said. 

"But what?" Connor asked. 

"I think we should consult Cordelia on this, when she returns to us. She has a better idea of what's going on that all of us, and she is still our link to The Powers, or whatever it is that's guiding us," Fred said. 

"Yes, that seems reasonable," Wesley said. 

"Okay, we'll wait for Cordelia," Connor said, finally giving up. 

Across town, two female figures stood outside what seemed like a run down building, just looking across at it. 

"Is that the place?" one of them asked. 

"Yes, I think so. No other way to find out than to go inside," The other replied. They both walked across the street and entered the seemingly abandoned apartment block. The sight that greeted them put both of them in shock for a couple of seconds. In front of them was a large room, filled with bodies, which they could tell were all undead. On the other side of the room, standing on a raised platform was Angelus, looking straight at them. 

"Look, it's Daddy," Druscilla said. 

"Yes, Dru, it is," Darla replied before moving off towards the raised platform and Angelus. 

__________________

****

A/N 2: Pretty good eh? Now all I got to do is figure out who I'm gonna do the next chapter on, ie, this was about Oz's group and Angel's group, don't know if I'm gonna keep going here, switch back to Sunnydale, or do something all together different for the next one. Keep reading, things are starting to develop, and something that I've had in my head since the beginning of this story (By that I mean Post Grave) is gonna happen soon, and it should be good. 


	19. Chapter 18 It Starts

****

Authors Note: Before reading this chapter, check out the title of it. You should get a general idea of the whole thing…. Also… I've started to do something in this chapter with my way of writing. When I refer to things that have been created in this story, that you need to remember, and if you don't, you should go back and read those bits… after one of these sections, I put in brackets and Italics, which chapter of which story I'm referring to, so then you can get the whole picture of things. Because from now, I'm gonna start calling up tiny little deliberate details which I have wrote, and if you don't get them, or don't remember them, the story won't be too good for you, so I'm gonna referenece them. Ie, Darla had shown her head a long time ago, before a couple of chapters ago, but I don' think anyone remembers that… so from now on, I'm gonna reference those things.

Also, again. The last section of this chapter sent chills up my spine as I imagined it in my head, and I don't know if I've written it down properly. It should send chills up your spine if I have… tell us what you think of it, plz. 

****

Oh, yeah. Take notice of the Times in this and the next chapter. If you know what happens before and what happens after a certain event, it will be really good and would make the reading much better. Unfortunately, I can't do all these events in chronological order, and have to jump around with the time. So, take note of the times towards the end of this chapter, and the entire next chapter. 

_____________

Chapter 18

It Starts

Night time wasn't a good time to be outside in Sunnydale, and she knew that. That was why she carried a stake around with her everywhere she went. That, and her sister insisted so. She was just one block away from her house now, but she felt as if something was watching her, and she knew that in Sunnydale, that was probably a fact. Quickening her pace, she reached the footpath out the front of her house, and started to walk up to the front verandah. She thought she saw something out of the corner of her vision, and Dawn stopped and looked down the street, but she didn't see anything. She pulled the stake out of her jeans pocket and held it up in her hand as she scanned the nearby bushes and shadows for any signs of movement, but there was none. Dawn immediately rushed up to the front door of her house and tried to open it, but it was locked. She cursed under her breath, because Buffy knew that she was going over to Janice's house that night, and she had left the house and left the door locked. She pulled the nap sack off of her back and started looking around inside it for the front door key. She found her key ring with every key that she needed on it, and started going through them to find the front door key. When she had thought she had found it, she put it into the lock, and tried to turn it, but it didn't turn. 

"Wrong key," she cursed under her breath. Dawn started going through the keys again, when she thought she heard a footstep behind her. She spun around, stake raised, but there was nothing there. She took a couple of steps forward and looked out onto the front lawn, to make sure that there was nothing there, and as far as she could tell, she was alone. 

"Key, key, key," she heard from beside her. Dawn spun around to see someone on her front balcony bent over, facing away from her, obviously looking for something on the ground. "Where is my key," The familiar voice said. The figure stood up and turned around and faced Dawn. "Do you know where my key is little girl?" The image of Glory asked as she walked towards Dawn. Dawn couldn't believe it, Glory was back and standing right in front of her. Somewhere in her brain, it registered that Giles, Willow and Faith had said something about Ghosts, but the thought was only a passing thought as Dawn looked at the figure that was standing in front of her. "Do you think you can help me find it?" Glory said again. 

"Wha-what-how?" was all that Dawn could stammer out. Glory turned away again, and kept looking on the floor for her missing key. 

"Here, key-key-key. Here, key-key-key," Glory taunted. When she turned around again, she looked straight at Dawn and Glory's face lit up. "There it is!" she exclaimed while looking straight at Dawn. "I've found you at last… I'm going to come and get _you_ little key." Glory said. "I know that you're the key now Dawnie, and when I come back, I'm coming straight. For. You."

Her eyes bolted open, and she found herself looking at the ceiling and the shadows that were cast on it. 

"Only a dream," Dawn muttered to herself between gasps of air. She didn't notice that she was breathing hard or that she was sweating until she had been awake for at least a few minutes. "It was only a dream. No need to panic," Dawn said to herself again, as a matter of reassuring herself, but the last sentence that Glory had said wouldn't stop going over and over again through her mind. 

__

"I know that you're the key now Dawnie, and when I come back, I'm coming straight. For. You."

She had just arrived in the city, and she was standing in the centre of the large abandoned warehouse. The sun was just coming up, and the sunlight streamed in through the large overhead windows. Apart from that source of light, there was no other. She had been instructed to come here, but why she didn't know. In the centre of the room was a large penticle engraved into the concrete with a candle at each point of the star. She knew that it was ritualistic, and she knew that she was the one that was to do something about it. She snorted at her blindness. She had been told to come here and she came without even arguing. For all she knew, she might be here to be killed. She certainly thought that the last time she had met up with those things. She remembered being in the ruined high school basement as the large dark things stabbed her, and one of them changed into one of those, vampires. _Turokhan_ she remembered they were called. _(reference to Chapter 9, War Cries)_.

Over the past couple of months, she had done things which she didn't even know the effects of, or what they really meant. She knew that she was being used, and the thing that scared her the most was that she didn't care. All she wanted was revenge, and she had the chance to get the ultimate revenge, or at least that was what was promised to her anyway. She remembered the reason why she had been convinced to leave Sunnydale, she could still hear her mother's voice going through her head. 

__

"Leave here. She'll sense you now, you've got that much power. And then she'll come looking for you. Her and her friend, the Slayer. Leave here, and go to Los Angeles where you'll be needed," the ghostly voice of Catherine Madison said. Amy looked down at the penticle, and then looked up as the door to the warehouse opened and someone stepped through the doorway. They came directly for her. It stepped up to her, and Amy could see that it was a girl just like herself. She sensed a bit of power in her, but not much. She looked to what the girl was carrying. She was carrying a _moping_, and inside it was a small ball of blue-white energy that was no larger than half of Amy's fist. 

"Step into the pentacle," the girl said to Amy. "This energy here is pure. All that is going to happen is that you are going to absorb a small amount of this energy. It will keep you from going insane from running too hot on magick for too long," the girl said. Amy nodded and stepped into the pentacle. She knew that it was happening. The power was getting to her head, and she rationalised that whatever was controlling her, actually did want her for something, and that her being sane was something it wanted from her. She looked to the girl, who put the _moping_ into the pentacle with her, and then recited a few words. The ball of energy came out of the _moping_ and Amy was fascinated as it split apart and tried to spread. She realised that this energy had consciousness. It knew what it was doing, and it knew what was happening; it was trying to escape. When it reached the borders of the pentacle, the air shimmered and flickered, stopping the energy in it's tracks. Amy felt the power in the air increasing, and she felt something enter her and take over her. Extraordinary was hardly the word that she could use to describe the feeling. She could feel the uncountable raw power of the energy that entered her, and almost at once, she felt at peace. All the anger and hatred soon ran out of her, and she felt like herself again. Then, she looked to the girl, who was now holding the _moping _in her arms again, the small blue-white energy ball inside. Amy had thought that all the energy would have entered her from the feelings she had just felt, but there wasn't even a visible change in size in the energy ball. She concluded that only a tiny, tiny fraction of this energy was needed to put her back to her rightful self. She looked to where the girl once was, but she was gone. Amy spun around to where the doorway to the warehouse was, but there was no sign of her. It was if she had just vanished into thin air. It was then that she realised that her skin had gone back to it's normal complexion; there were no veins raised to the surface; her skin wasn't pale any more. She grabbed a bunch of her hair, and pulled it into her vision. It was back to it's normal colour; auburn-red instead of black. She smiled to herself as she hadn't felt this good in a long time. Thinking about it now, she didn't know why she hated Willow so much, and she couldn't think of any reasons for revenge and any reasons on why she would need more power. She was almost perfectly contempt, except for a dark feeling in the pits of her stomach which was so tiny she could ignore it. 

She didn't know any of these people. She didn't know what was happening to her. She didn't have a clue what they were all talking about. She could only remember scarce little bits of her life before any of this happened. She had only learnt to speak a couple of days ago. She took it for granted that these people were telling her the truth, they seemed like they wanted to help her, and apparently she was important to something. So important that they were all willing to risk their lives to protect her from it, and so important that vampires were willing to sacrifice their's to try to get to her. Confused wasn't the right word for how she had been feeling ever since she had awoken in the park. They had all had an argument hours ago about what to do now, whether to leave the city or to stay and fight against the vampires. She was all for leaving the city, but she doubted wether her opinion would be taken into consideration because she hardly had any idea on what was going on. To make matters worse, the only person who had spent any time with her, and had tried to treat her like a person had changed into a blue person made of energy, split up into little balls of energy and then disappeared. It was natural that Anita was feeling out of place, scared, and lost. She just hoped that her memory would come back to her, or that she would get a sense of belonging with this group of people. She knew that she had some purpose in the whole balance of things that were occurring, but she didn't know what it was. Anita was startled out of her thoughts by the sudden movement of people. Anita looked up to see that Cordelia was standing at the entrance to the waiting room. Everyone except the potentials rushed up to her and welcomed her back. 

They had searched every hospital in the area, and even then they had gone further than they should have in search of Angel's crew. They hadn't found anything. They had checked at every hospital reception for anyone who Oz knew that was in Angel's group, or for Angel himself, but they had found nothing. In the smaller hospitals, they had even searched the hospital themselves, it not taking too long to do so with six people. 

"Nicola. Can't you do something," Brett's voice said over the radio in the van. "Like, can't you do something to try and find them." Oz watched as Nicola picked up the microphone and spoke back into it, waiting to hear the answer. 

"No, I can't do anything Brett. This is a city of millions. If I try to find them, I'll go insane, literally… plus, I don't know them. I have to know the person so I can find them psychically," she replied. Oz knew that they weren't going to find them. He shook himself awake as he almost fell asleep at the wheel. Right now, they didn't know what to do. Brett and Naomi in the van ahead were just driving around, and Oz, Nicola, Michaela and Daniel were just following them in the van behind them. Oz grabbed the radio and spoke to Naomi and Brett,

"Yo, Brett man. I vote we head to a motel and get some rest. I don't know about you, but I'm beat." 

"Yeah, me too. I think we all are," Brett replied. "I think I saw a motel a while back. We'll circle around and go there." Oz followed Brett and in ten minutes of backtracking, they finally found a motel and pulled up, having given up hope of finding Angel or his group. 

Half an hour later, everyone had dragged the chairs into a large circle in the middle of the waiting room, not having to worry about anyone overhearing them as they had been the only people in the room for the whole night. 

"I agree with Wesley. We can't do this alone. Sunnydale seems to be our best option, even considering the drawbacks," Cordelia said to everyone. "But we have to make it look as if we aren't coming when we leave here, because then we'll have the element of surprise." 

"Yeah. They won't suspect that we'll come back and they'll be unprepared," Fred said. There was a slight pause. "But what about Gunn?" Fred asked. 

"We take him with us," Wesley said. "He should be fine in a couple of days… and we can get someone to do a healing spell on him, wether it be Anita, Cordelia here, or Willow when we get to Sunnydale."

"Don't they have their own problems in Sunnydale?" Connor asked. "I mean, isn't it the place where everything's meant to go down, all the time? That's what all you have told me about it. What would make them leave there to come here?"

"I have a way, but I'll explain it once we get there," Cordelia explained. 

"So, we can come with you?" One of the potentials asked. "You're all going to Buffy Summers, right. We've gathered that much. Can we come with you?" she asked. 

"Yes. It would be better for you if you came with us," Cordelia replied. They looked to the Potential Slayers which were with them, and who had saved them from the vampire attack only two nights ago. "You were going to have to go to her anyway," Cordelia explained. "You might as well come with us." 

"W-when are we g-going to go?" Anita asked everyone, speaking for the first time in the discussion. 

"As soon as Gunn is awake and can move," Wesley replied, but was cut off by Cordelia. 

"No. Before we leave, there's something we have to do," Cordelia said while looking around to everyone. "When I attacked the Syopher. The First, it stole a part of me. It took a part of the energy that I'm created out of. We need to get that back," Cordelia said. "We have to get that back… if we don't, the results could be disastrous."

"Why. What could happen?" Fred and Connor asked simultaneously. 

"The First can't use that energy, and neither can anyone else, but the energy can be used as a catalyst… to speed up and empower spells and various other things without being used up itself. We need to get it back before The First decides to use it to do anything," Cordelia said. "I know exactly where it, where I, or at least a part of me, is being held. I can guide you all there, and we should be able to retrieve the _moping_ that it is held in." 

"What happens if more of those, Syophers, turn up?" Fred asked. 

"There are none around that area at the moment, and if they turn up, we leave, and then come back and try again when they've left," Cordelia replied. "And we have to go now," she said suddenly. 

"What about Gunn?" Wesley asked. 

"He'll be safe in here," Cordelia replied. "We have to go now," Cordelia pushed on everyone. Everyone got up, trusting that Cordelia's haste to recover the lost part of herself was indeed a top priority. 

"What if it's a trap?" Connor said while everyone was getting up. Instantly everyone stopped and looked at him. He looked around at everyone else before he continued. "this, First thing. It want's this girl," he said while pointing to Anita. "What if this is a trap to lure us out and take her," he said. Everyone took in a sharp intake of breath, realising that it very well could be. 

"It's not," Cordelia replied. 

"How do we know that?" Connor asked, slightly raising his voice. 

"Because it's not!" Cordelia replied, frustrated. These people were meant to be on her side, and they were fighting her at every step. "Things are happening, right now Connor, that you have no idea of, that you can't feel. We can't let it happen, and to do so, we need to attack! Right now, we don't have any time to lose. I thought we might have a couple of days, but we don't! We have to go right, now," Cordelia replied losing her patience. Visibly, she sighed and looked around at everyone again. "Look, I'm sorry about that. But we have to go. There's no time to explain what's going to happen if we don't move… can we just go please. Can't you just trust me on this," Cordelia said to all of them. They all looked at her, everyone, and then finally gave in and started to head out of the medical clinic to the waiting cars and weapons. 

****

9:50 A.M. - Los Angeles - California 

Not too far from the Medical Clinic that Gunn resided in, a group of five people stood in the centre of a large and abandoned warehouse. It was the same one that Amy Madison had visited earlier that day. The sun had now risen in the sky, and it wasn't so dark and full of shadows. If Amy had been here later when there was enough sunlight coming in through the windows overhead, she would have seen spell ingredients in one corner of the warehouse. Together, the group of people moved towards the spell ingredients. They all gathered up a candle and a candle holder and went and placed them on the five points of the pentacle. They all looked around at each other. They all looked into their black eyes, and into the veiny and pale faces and looked at the black hair of the others. They had all been led down the dark path of magickal practices, and unknowingly they had all been manipulated into this place by The First. It appeared to all of them simultaneously as a form that was special to them. For most of them, their story was relatively the same; they had someone special to them, and they had given up on everything they treasured in life and given up in using magick in the correct way, finding a way to escape their despair in the raw power that was within themselves. At the time they all didn't know that it was a self destructive path, and none of them could have guessed that they would be here, about to start a chain of events that would alter this reality forever. 

The First, in a different guise to everyone who was inside the warehouse, stepped up carrying a glass canister with a small blue-white ball of energy inside it. It stood in the middle of the pentacle, and faced North. It raised the _moping_ out in front of it, and let it go. It fell to the ground and smashed into little pieces, effectively releasing the ball of energy that was contained inside. 

The image of The First began to shift and morph. It was splitting apart into two, and within three minutes, there were two figures standing in the middle of the pentacle. One was incorporeal and the other wasn't. One of the figure's images shifted, and it morphed into the image of a Syopher without it's cloaks and robes on. A tall lanky bald creature with fiery red eyes. _(Reference to Chapter 6 – Old Ghosts, New Problems – War Cries)_. The people standing around the outside of the pentacle started chanting in unison now. The ball of blue-white energy spread around the pentacle, and was met with the same barrier that had contained it in Amy Madison's spell. One by one, energy started to leap from each of the witches on the outside of the pentacle, and it formed a ring of red, black and purple energy swirling around itself around the outside of the pentacle. Slowly, the skin of the Syopher began to fade and disappear, and standing in it's position was a figure of deep red energy mixed with black. The blue-white energy of Cordelia began to spread like a mist around the space that it was enclosed in, and when it came in contact with the red-black energy of the Syopher, the Syopher's energy spread. Only a few beings which resided on the face of the earth had been witness to the same amount of magickal power which was now in the warehouse. The energy of the Syopher continued to grow until it was pushing against the boundaries of the pentacle. The air around the pentacle was constantly shimmering and bolts of energy like lightning were being released along the surface of the barrier as it began to break. Inside of the swirling of red-black energy, stood The First in it's pure form. An image of a large demon with red eyes, orange skin and curled horns on it's head. 

The red-black energy was doubling in intensity by the second. The figures standing around the outside of the pentacle were now long dead, no human being, being able to withstand that amount of power. The barrier of the pentacle was keeping the energy in one place and stopping it from spreading and dissipating. The energy was now at it's peak. The energy barrier around the pentacle burst. The energy that it was keeping back however, magickally imploded on itself, and with a loud crack that resonated throughout the whole city of Los Angeles, disappeared into a space that was smaller than the electron of an atom. A wave of invisible energy radiated outwards from the warehouse in Los Angeles and travelled over the whole globe.

****

10:00 A.M 

____________

There we go…. Next chapter coming soon… Chapter 19 - The Beginning of the End.

Oh, by the way… this story is FAR from closing up. I'd say that this is about half way through the story at this point right here, so for those of you who may be thinking that I'm starting to end it, I aint. There's gonna be a lot more stuff happening from here on out, and it's all gonna start tying in together.

Your reviews would be much apprecitated. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed already, and who keeps reviewing. 

Aussie.


	20. Chapter 19 The Beginning of the End

****

Authors Note. Please Read

This is not a conventional chapter. It is not written in the normal way, because there are so many things happening at the same time, It can't be written in the normal way. Instead, it's got times for every paragraph -When the events in that paragraph start, and when they end - just like the last section of the last chapter. 

In my opinion, this is one of the best chapters I've ever written. It's as good as Chapter 8 - Renascence - War Cries (The one where Anita and Cordelia come back), and maybe even better than that. Huge things happen this chapter, so, yeah, enjoy. 

Don't forget to tell me what you think too!

_________________

Chapter 19

The Beginning of the End.

****

Twenty Minutes Earlier – 9:40 A.M. – Sunnydale – California

They had all just heard what Dawn had dreamed about that night, and no one was speaking. There was a heavy tension in the air as everyone in the Scooby Gang sat around the lounge room. Everyone knew that there was a large possibility that Dawn's dream actually meant something. It wasn't often that someone in Sunnydale had a powerful dream that didn't mean something and wasn't a way of communicating that something bad was going to happen. Everyone knew this, but no one was willing to say it. Everyone also knew that if they were the one to say something, and that they were wrong, they would be making a panic amongst everyone and someone would blame them for it, even though they couldn't have known that they were wrong. Finally, it was Xander who broke the silence. 

"It could be connected to our ghosts… Whatever is causing mayhem all over the world, it might have something to do with that," Xander suggested. 

"Then why would it choose me?" Dawn said. "Buffy's the Slayer… Willow's the Witch. Why would my head be chosen to mess around with?… It might not be whatever is causing stuff to happen. It might be Glory. She might be back. She might be the one causing everything."

"We don't know Dawn," Buffy replied. 

"You know, dreams are usually just a way of our subconscious letting itself out," Cassia said. She didn't feel a part of the group, but she liked the topic of dream interpretations. 

"But around the Hellmouth, they usually mean something is going to happen," Giles said to her. The tension in the room just rose as Giles said the words that no one wanted to hear. 

"Look. How about we stop panicking and we just, wait until we get another sign or something. These things usually come with a lot of signs don't they? So, we wait until we get another sign before we jump to any conclusions," Buffy said to all of them. Giles just snorted. 

"Buffy's right… did I just say that? But, yes. She is right. We should all remain calm until we get another sign of something that is going to come. We have our own problems to deal with. We have to start looking out for these potentials and we have to keep researching into the information we already know," Giles said to everyone. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. 

"I'm going to go and see these potential slayers. Get to know some of them, y'know. I haven't even spoken to any of them yet," Willow said. "It might be helpful if we can tie in any thing that their stories have in common." 

"Yes, good thinking," Giles said. Everyone got up to go and do their respective activities. Xander had called in sick for the day, deciding ages ago that he needed a day off, and he had chosen today before anything had even started happening. He figured that there was no better place to hang around than the Summers' all day. Dawn didn't really have anything to do, so she decided to go upstairs to her room, or maybe she would talk to Faith, who she was sure was around somewhere. Buffy and Giles were going to get together to discuss starting to train the potentials. They didn't have any Watchers any more, and Buffy thought it would be a good idea if they learned from the actual Slayer, not a Watcher. Cassia didn't know exactly what to do, so she decided she'd hang around with Xander and get to know him a bit and interrogate him about all the others. 

****

9:56 A.M. – Los Angeles – California.

They were speeding down the streets of LA, careful to avoid any attention from police or crashing the three cars that they were driving. They were heading to a warehouse that was near the medical clinic they were just in. Fred was very nervous in the car that they were in. Wesley was behind the wheel and was driving like a maniac.

"Right. Go Right here," Cordelia yelled. With a sudden jerk of the wheel, Wesley turned the car on a hard right and shifted down gears. They took the corner so fast that the car skidded around the corner and fishtailed when Wesley tried to regain control of the car. They were now on a six lane street; three lanes going each way, and it was obvious that they weren't going to get to the warehouse Cordelia was guiding them to. By the urgency that Cordelia had used, and by what she had said already, Fred knew that there was a large chance that they might not get there in time. She looked across to Cordelia, waiting to hear her instruction for Wesley. Fred saw that Cordelia's eyes were pure white and her pupils had gone, and that her eyes were now made up of white energy. "We're not going to make it," Cordelia said in a solemn voice. 

"Yes, we will. We just have to get through this traffic," Wesley replied, thinking of driving along the median strip to get there. 

"No we won't. There's no time. Even if we could get there, there wouldn't be enough time to stop the ritual," Cordelia said. Fred saw Cordelia's eyes return to normal. "We'll wait. It's better for me the further we are away from that warehouse when the ritual takes place. If I'm right next to it, I might make matters worse." They had stopped behind the cars waiting at the red light now, and Wesley had turned around to face Cordelia. Behind him, he could see the other car with the potentials and Connor and Anita in it. It was Gunn's car they were driving, and they were lucky to find out that one of the Potentials had a drivers licence and was a very capable driver. 

"What? What does that mean? What's going on?" Wesley asked. 

****

9:59 A.M. - Los Angeles – California. 

She loved this feeling. She was herself again. Sitting in a coffee shop, Amy Madison was delighting in the short time that she had, magick free. She knew that it would come back, that her need for power would overwhelm this feeling that she was currently having. She knew that she wasn't over her magickal addiction and that she had come through it. She knew that it was only because of the spell that was performed on her. She hadn't done anything. She hadn't fought it off. She didn't have the strength to fight it off, and she wasn't a better person because of her little gift. Amy knew that it would all go away, and that the only purpose of this was to keep her sanity. Whatever it was that was controlling her and manipulating her wanted her kept sane, for what reasons, she didn't know, and really didn't care. 

Suddenly, she felt a rush of power through the air and herself, so sudden and so strong, she leapt up and knocked the table over that she was standing at. Raw energy crackled down her arms, and wind was racing around the coffee shop that she was in. Everyone who looked at her saw a girl with black hair, pale skin, and pure black eyes with energy crackling and swirling around her. 

****

10:01 A.M.

****

9:59 A.M. – Lounge Room - Summers' Residence - Sunnydale – California

Willow, Faith and the three potentials were sitting around and exchanging stories. Faith wasn't really interested in the stories that the potentials were telling of how they and their Watchers had been attacked. All of their stories were basically the same, and once you had heard one, you'd heard them all. Their stories couldn't compare to hers, to the things she had done in her time as a Slayer, and before she had mucked everything up by coming to Sunnydale, the first time. Most of them had only fought a few vampires in their lives, and that was always with their Watchers, but she didn't want to barge in on Willow's information hunting. She'd get to tell her stories to the Potentials sooner or later. She was sure that Buffy wouldn't be telling them any stories of her encounters, so Faith was the one who had to do it. The only reason that Faith was here was that she had decided to get to know the potentials. Faith's senses went on overdrive, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end, which meant that something bad was nearby. She heard Willow mutter something under her breath, and was surprised when there was a strong wind in the room. She looked to Willow, and saw that there was red-black energy crackling all around her and that her eyes were closed. Faith and all of the potentials jumped back and looked at her, and when she opened her eyes, they were completely black.

Faith had never seen anything like it in her life. Energy was swirling all around Willow's limbs, and her hair had now turned jet black. Willow was on the floor, gasping for air, with extremely powerful energy encompassing her. Faith knew that something bad was going down, and somehow, she knew that anyone who was a regular in Sunnydale would know what was going on. She ran from the room as fast as she could into the kitchen, not finding anyone, she yelled. 

"Buffy! Giles! Xander! Dawn! Anyone!" Faith screamed in exasperation. She looked back into the lounge room and saw Willow, who was now standing up and floating in mid air. Her head was tilted back, looking upwards, and energy had almost completely consumed her body. "Get away from her!" Faith yelled to the potentials, who were slowly backing away towards the front door. 

****

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Dawn's Room – Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California

Dawn was writing in her diary. She was writing about all the potentials, Faith and Willow's return and her dream, trying to get down every tiny detail. She could still hear Glory's words go through her head, just as if she was standing next to her, whispering into her ear. 

__

"I know that you're the key now Dawnie, and when I come back, I'm coming straight. For. You." She wrote these words down on the page, and she had a distinct feeling that something was going to happen related to this. Suddenly, the tingle that she felt in her body got far stronger, and she began to feel light headed. Something coursed through her body, something that she had never felt before in her life. It was powerful, and it was her, and it belonged to her. For the first time in her life, she felt complete. All that vanished as a wave of nausea came over her body and she collapsed onto the ground. She managed to pull herself up onto her bed, but it had completely exhausted her and she collapsed face down onto her bed covers. When she turned her head and opened her eyes, she was looking into the mirror, and her eyes went wide. In her reflection, she could see bright green energy swirling around her form, and it was getting stronger and stronger. It became so strong that Dawn could only see the green energy and not herself any more. She screamed as she lapsed into unconsciousness, not sure of what would be there when, and if she woke up; Dawn Summers, High School student and sister of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Key, mystical energy ball which unlocks the gates between dimensions. 

****

10:01 A.M.

9:59 A.M. – Backyard – Summers' Residence –Sunnydale – California

Xander was telling Cassia about the various things that the Scooby Gang had faced over the years, and the things that they had done. He had only started with the story of Angel and Angelus when suddenly, Cassia moaned and fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" He asked her as she lay on the ground, her eyes now half open. He watched in horror as her eyes closed and green-black energy started to swirl up from the ground around her, and she thrust her head back, hitting the ground hard. Her whole body started to convulse and shake violently, and Xander thought she was having a seizure. 

"Buffy! Giles! Xander! Dawn!" Xander heard Faith scream from inside the house. He ignored Faith's screams and ignored Cassia's convulsions as a steady line of green energy came at him from Cassia, entering his chest. He had the strongest deja vú he had ever felt, and he remembered the time on the top of King Man's Bluff when he had stepped in the beam of green energy that Willow was directing at Prosepexa's shrine. He felt raw, natural power spread through him, and his brain was overwhelmed with the strength of it and he fell to the ground, clutching his head. Right then, he knew exactly what had happened when he had stepped into that beam of Energy. He had taken the earth's energy inside him and was now a part of it all. _(Reference to Chapter 9 – Post Grave; Chapter 11 – Post Grave; Chapter 14 – Post Grave)_

****

10:01 A.M. 

****

9:59 A.M. – Basement – Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California

Buffy and Giles had just started their plans for how to train the potentials, and where to keep them. The best idea that they had come up with was for everyone to move to Angel's old mansion and live there until the current crisis was over, or until the potentials left. That way, they'd all be in the same place, as opposed to other plans of having half of them at the Summers' Residence and the other half take over Xander's and Giles' apartments. They had been writing it all down. Suddenly, her muscles tensed up and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end. Her Slayer sense was going off, which meant that something that could cause her harm was nearby. She looked to Giles, who had a completely bewildered look on his face before he fell off his chair and onto the ground, gasping for air. 

"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed while jumping off of her chair and bending down next to Giles. "Giles?! What's going on!? What's wrong!?" Buffy panicked. Upstairs, she heard a lot of commotion. 

"Buffy! Giles! Xander! Dawn! Anyone!" She heard Faith yell above her. She heard Dawn's scream from somewhere, but she didn't know where. Not much of it registered to Buffy as she was bent down, looking at an exasperated Giles on the floor, who seemed to be recovering. 

"Go to them, I'll be fine," Giles rasped. Buffy hesitated a second and looked back to Giles, who looked at her, giving her all the affirmation she needed. She turned and bolted up the stairs towards the sound of Faith's voice, while Giles lay on the floor, and the mark of Egyphon carved itself onto his back. 

****

10:01 A.M. 

****

9:59 A.M. – Room 7 - Stay-the-Night Motel – Los Angeles – California

There were six bodies inside the small room. They had all decided to just get out one room and have everyone sleep in that, considering that it would save money. They were lucky this time, there were two large beds in the room, which satisfied Oz and Michaela and Brett and Naomi, sharing a bed each. Daniel and Nicola got the floor, but even then it wasn't that bad because they had two air beds folded away in their vans and chose to sleep on those. They were all asleep, as the trip to Los Angeles had exhausted them, as well as staying up the whole night looking for Angel and his crew. Suddenly, a large crack resounded which made everyone bolt upright. Oz and Daniel covered their ears as the sound hurt them more than the others because of their increased werewolf hearing. Michaela and Naomi both let out a loud moan as a wave of power rushed over them. Nicola put her hands to her head and closed her eyes as her senses were increased ten fold and the dim light in the room hurt her eyes. Blue-Green-Black energy started swirling around Michaela's arms and it made it's way to her body, swirling all around her. There was a strong wind in the room now, blowing papers and small objects around the room. Suddenly, Daniel and Oz started to morph into their werewolf forms. They fully turned and lost all control of themselves. As one, they turned and looked to the others in the room, snarling as they did so. 

****

10:01 A.M. 

****

9hr:59min:50sec A.M. – Angel's Car – Los Angeles - California 

Fred turned and looked at Wesley. She too wanted to know what was going on, and what ever this ritual was meant to do, and what exactly Cordelia meant when she said that 'it would only be worse the closer she was to the warehouse when the ritual was completed.' Just then, there was a loud resounding crack, and right in front of Fred and Wesley's eyes, Cordelia disappeared, a blue-white figure vaguely in her shape sat there. Then, the figure burst into millions of pieces; millions of tiny little balls of blue-white energy that were blasted away from each other and spread out, out of the car. Cordelia Chase, the higher being, had just essentially exploded right in front of Fred and Wesley. In the car behind them, they noticed that there was a disturbance, and saw the door open and the new girl, Anita roll out. There was blue and green energy swirling around her, and surrounding her was a yellow-gold glow that spread itself. The blue and green energy shot out and hit a light post, affectively melting it where the energy struck. The girl was rolling around on the road in agony, screaming something that wasn't even in English. And then, as soon as it had started, it stopped as the Yellow glow turned into a dark red glow laced with green and blue. Anita managed to stand up, energy still swirling around her limbs. She raised her arms, and overhead, the sky instantly clouded over, rain started to pour down. Slowly, the energy subsided around her, and Anita was on the ground on all fours, her head hanging low. When she looked up, her blonde hair had changed to red and her eyes glowed blue and green. 

****

Five minutes later

Everyone had gathered around Anita. They had guided her to the sidewalk. The effects of whatever that had happened had worn off, and she was leaning against a building. Everyone was making sure she was alright. She said that she was, but Fred doubted that after what she had just seen. She hadn't seen anything like it in her life, and she had barely seen anything that scary in her life before either. Their cars were still out in the middle of the street, but no body seemed to mind as everyone else in the street had vacated it in fear once Anita started rolling around on the ground. 

"We have to go," Anita said. Everyone stopped and looked at her. "We have to leave here right now. We're not needed here. We have to go to Sunnydale, they need all the help they can get," Anita said softly. 

****

10:06 A.M. – Room 7 – Stay-the-Night Motel – Los Angeles – California

Brett was slumped against the wall. He had no idea what had happened, but it was extremely bad. Straight after the noise woke them up, all hell broke loose in their room. Nicola and Michaela both went hay wire, and Oz and Daniel had turned into their wolf selves, but without their control that they had both managed to master over the years. Brett had managed to strike Daniel over the head with a chair, which luckily hit him just right to knock him out, and Michaela had managed to knock Oz out with magickal energy, but Brett was sure that she had done more damage to him than that. At the time, she still hadn't managed to stop whatever was happening to her, there was extremely powerful energy swirling around her whole body, anyone could tell that. She had reached her hand out towards Oz, and that energy went shooting out towards him, sending him flying across the room and hitting the wall on the opposite side head first. He was snapped out of his thoughts as Nicola spoke. 

"We have to leave here. We have to go to Sunnydale. They're gonna need some help," she said from the floor, still slumped across the air bed, barely able to lift her head up. 

****

10:01 A.M. – Basement stairs – Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California

Buffy didn't have a clue what was going on. Panic had overtaken her. She didn't want to know what she'd find once she opened the basement door and looked out into her house. She could tell from Faith's screams that it was urgent and needed. She turned the door handle, but she couldn't open the door fast enough and she rammed it hard with her body, sending it flying open. She saw Faith in the kitchen, moving towards the dining room, a look of pure fear on her face. 

"Faith!?" Buffy shouted. There was a lot of noise, and Buffy figured out that it was coming from the living room. 

"Buffy! What's happening!?" Faith exclaimed. Buffy immediately took off after Faith and entered the living room. For a second, her eyes didn't know what they were looking at, but then it registered; Willow. Willow was in an upright position, floating above the floor, her head tilted back, red and black energy swirling all about her, her eyes and hair completely black. Buffy could feel the raw power emanating off of the girl, and she could feel it building. For one of the few times in her life, Buffy was terrified. She could easily remember what had happened the last time Willow got like this, but now it was different. There was more power; she had more power. Suddenly, every piece of glass in the house shattered. The front windows shattered, the glass in the front doors shattered, all the light bulbs shattered, and every single window and glass in the house burst into pieces. Buffy took three quick steps towards Willow, but she was sent flying back, sliding along the floor after she landed, into the dining room, which was on the other side of the house. There, she saw the potentials, watching from a safe distance. 

"If I say so, run. Get out of this house and run," Buffy said to the potentials while she was still on the ground. She got up, slowly, and made her way back to Faith's side. All they could do was watch, there was nothing that they could do. It had only now sunk into Buffy's mind what was happening. Beside her, she saw movement, and saw that it was Giles stumbling along. He saw Buffy and stumbled up to her, and put his arm on her shoulder and used it for support. He looked up at Buffy, and then looked to where both Buffy and Faith were looking, and Buffy saw his mouth drop open. Suddenly, all the wind in the room stopped, and all the energy enveloping Willow stopped, and she dropped to the floor and collapsed. Instantaneously, Buffy raced forward, followed by Giles and then Faith. 

"Willow? Willow, are you alright? Willow? Willow, tell us what happened?" Giles said in an unusually calm voice. Willow's eyes opened slowly and she looked around at everyone. She was gasping for air, and everyone could tell that whatever had happened had a large effect on her. 

"The- the- the walls," Willow managed to whisper. 

"Yes. What about the walls?" Giles asked her. 

"Walls. Between. Dimensions… they're thinned… things are coming through," Willow rasped to them all between breaths. "Buffy?" Willow said. 

"Yes Willow, I'm here," she replied while leaning in closer. 

"The Hellmouth," Willow rasped again. 

"Yes Willow? What about the Hellmouth?" Buffy asked. 

"You have to get there," Willow replied. Both Buffy and Giles could tell that she was about to slip into unconsciousness. Buffy had to know what was happening to her friend, and she had to know what she was trying to say. 

"Why do I have to get to the Hellmouth?" Buffy asked her, not expecting a reply as Willow's eyes had closed. In a last strain of effort, Willow's eyes opened again, and she said two words that shook Buffy to the core. 

"It's open."

****

10:10 A.M.

__________________

So, that's the chapter. Tell me what you think of it, please. If it came out how I was imagining it in my head, it's F***in awesome, but that might also be because I know what's going to happen next and I'm just setting the scene for it. Tell me what you think please.

Aussie.

Next Chapter - Chapter 20 - Too Late.


	21. Chapter 20 Too Late

****

Authors Note: Here's the next chapter. Not really much to say, except that there are developments to a storyline that you may have thought was pretty un-related to everyone in Sunnydale and LA, but in fact, it is. If you have any guesses as to what's going on there, after you read this chapter, let me know, I wanna know if what I've got planned is gonna be a surprise. Nothing too much that happened last chapter will be revealed here, or in the next couple of chapters. It will take some time to know the purpose of what's going on etc etc blah blah. 

________________ 

Chapter 20

Too Late

They had just touched down in Heathrow airport and were taxiing into the terminal. It had been a long flight for Skye. They weren't going to Sweden any more, instead Amanda told them that they were going to England to a coven of Witches that would keep them safe. Amanda told them that they had changed their destination after the incident in Singapore Airport, as who ever was after them knew where they'd be going to, so they changed their destination and route. Skye, Rhonda, Jim and Michael walked through the airport with their usual guard; Amanda at the front, and the rest of the strange people surrounding them, except this time, they were slightly split apart as to not raise suspicion. Skye was curious as to why the security forces weren't trying to stop them. Surely, Singapore airport would have had their plane tracked and then notified Heathrow airport, unless the Watchers Council had pulled some strings. After all, the Singapore security personnel didn't know that they were the good guys; obviously the Council had contacted Singapore and English authorities and notified them of the situation they were in; or that's what Skye thought anyway, however she was still suspicious of Amanda and her crew. 

There were four vehicles waiting for them in the car park of the airport. All of the vehicles were identical except for their colour; being black or navy blue. Amanda and the others who survived the attack on the Watchers Council in Brisbane were instructed to get in one car each, that way they would minimise the danger for them all, being in a separate car each. Skye got in one car and wasn't surprised when Amanda hopped into the back seat next to her, and one of the other people in her crew got in the driver's seat. 

"Where are you taking us to?" Skye asked Amanda. Amanda didn't say anything in reply for a long time until they had exited the airport. Skye thought that it was unusual and she was starting to get a little freaked out, but finally Amanda spoke. 

"We're taking you into the forest. There is a Coven of Witches which has agreed to take care of you and hide you until this whole thing is resolved," Amanda replied to Skye in a sympathetic voice. 

"And this Coven. They know about us and about what's going on?" Skye asked her. 

"They know about you, yes. However, they don't know what's going on," Amanda replied. Skye just nodded her head, even though she didn't agree with what Amanda had just told her. There was a long silence as Skye turned and looked out the window at the English Country side. They had been driving for at least an hour now, and passed through many towns. Skye couldn't help but notice how crammed in everyone seemed and the short distance between towns. It was unusual for her, having grown up in Rural Australia before coming to the Watchers Council. She had grown up on a property, at least fifty kilometres away from the closest town, and the town itself wasn't much. It had been over a two hour drive, one way to the next town. Here, it was twenty minutes to half an hour drive between towns. 

"What are you?" Skye asked Amanda suddenly. She turned her head to Amanda and looked at her. 

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Amanda replied. 

"What are you?" Skye simply asked again. "I know you're not human. You've got this certain… air about you," Skye said again. Amanda just looked at her, and Skye was almost enchanted by her green eyes which seemed like they could put anyone under a spell. 

"I am human," Amanda replied again, but she left a pause before speaking again. "But I'm more than human as well." 

"In what ways?" Skye asked her, and she honestly thought that Amanda was going to answer her. There was a long pause again as Amanda seemed to consider her reply. 

"The less you know about me, the safer you'll be," Amanda said to her. Skye opened her mouth to say something else, but Amanda cut her off. "And no buts about it." Skye just gave up, for the time being, knowing that she wouldn't get anything out of Amanda now. She returned to looking back out the window. 

Two hours later, all the cars pulled up in a gravel clearing inside the forest. Skye looked around in wonder. The forest looked like something out of a movie; she had never seen anything like it before in her life. The trees stretched up and almost seemed to touch the sky, and the canopy was thick enough to shroud the whole forest in shadow, but let enough sunlight through for the under brush to grow. She had also noticed when she stepped out of the car how cold the air was, and that just added to the mysticism of the place. She was brought out of her trance by Rhonda as she spoke. 

"Come on Skye, let's go," Rhonda said to her from the other side of the clearing. Skye looked at Rhonda who was on the other side of the clearing with everyone else, urging her to come with them. Skye jogged across the clearing to catch up with the small group and saw that they were heading down a small dirt track that looked like a goat's trail into the forest. They had been walking perhaps ten minutes when Skye saw a person up ahead, sitting on a log that was stretched along the path. 

"Amanda. It's good to see you back," the man said to her. 

"It's good to see you too Michael," Amanda replied. 

"Come, this way. Samantha and Montague are waiting for you, they have urgent news," the man called Michael replied to Amanda. Skye watched as he turned around and the image in front of them changed. A part of the forest seemed to change and shift, revealing another path that split off from the original one. She saw the look of shock on Amanda's face as this happened. It was obvious that this was news to her as well as it was to Skye. She listened in as Michael said something to Amanda. 

"Because of… recent events. We've had to hide ourselves. For our own protection," Michael said to her. Amanda just nodded in reply as they began to move off down the new track. 

They reached what seemed like a small village in the middle of the forest. There was about ten log cabins that had been erected, and a large number of tents spread out around the place too. People were milling about and just going about what seemed to be their everyday lives. Ahead, she saw two seemingly elderly figures standing and looking at them, and she guessed that they must be their welcoming committee. They approached the group and went straight to Amanda. 

"Amanda, it is good to see you again," the elderly woman said. 

"Yes, it is," The elderly man said. 

"It is good to see you too, Samantha, Montague," Amanda said to them. There was a slight pause as Skye listened in, pretending to listen to Michael tell them what happened around here and what was what. Skye knew that she could get all the details later off of Rhonda. "Michael said that you have urgent news," Amanda said to both of them. 

"Yes, we do. But here is not the place to be discussing such matters. Let's take a walk," Montague said to her. Skye had an inkling of a feeling that she needed to hear what was going on, and that she was the only one who thought that this whole thing was bogus. 

"Um. Is there a toilet around here anywhere, because I really need to go," Skye asked Michael. She watched as he pointed to a cabin not too far from where Amanda and the two elderly people were heading. She walked towards it in quite a hurry, making as if she needed to use the building, but when she got there, she quickly ducked around the back and made her way to the next cabin, where she had seen Amanda and the two elderly people stop and start talking. She crept along one wall now, and she could hear their voices as they were just around the corner. 

"We're too late. Our plans have failed," the elderly woman said. 

"What? How?" Skye heard Amanda ask. 

"Earlier today, a spell was performed which weakened the walls between dimensions. It was only for a short time, and the walls were repaired, but not fully. But this time was enough to do serious damage. A wave of power spread across the globe, and affected most magick users and supernatural beings. Surely you must have felt it," the elderly man said. 

"Oh, that was what that was," Amanda said. 

"The Hellmouth has been opened, The First's plans are under way," the elderly woman said. "The Hellmouth remains open. Although the walls between dimensions were _repaired_, the power surge caused the Hellmouth to open and remain open. We're too late," she said. 

"No, there's still time. We can still pull this off. We may be a little late, but late is better than never," Amanda replied. 

"There'll be a high risk involved even if we can pull it off," the elderly man said. "The young witch, Willow, who came to us escaped," he said. "We weren't able to drain her power, and without that level of power, it is hard to accomplish what we have set out to do."

"You don't need magick to do this. It happens to people all over the world. It's happened before," Amanda argued. Skye didn't know what they were talking about, but she got the direct feeling that it was big, whatever it was. "We can do this. Just agree to try," Amanda pushed. There was a long pause as Skye thought that the elderly people were thinking about what Amanda had to say. 

"Okay, but you'll have to move quickly," the elderly woman said. "Go to Sunnydale. No matter what the cost, bring her here. It doesn't matter how you bring her, just make sure she's alive. If you can, get another one of the potentials. Her name is Molly, she's also very important. Also, if you can, retrieve the young girl, Willow Rosenburg, but only if you can. But don't let any of this get in the way of your main priority," Skye heard the elderly woman say. 

"Okay, we'll leave straight away. We'll be back in at most… ten days, and we'll bring you your Slayer," Amanda replied. 

They had grabbed weapons and headed out as soon as Willow had told them the information. The Hellmouth was open, and it had been for a good ten minutes or so. Buffy had stopped anyone else from coming with them. It was going to be dangerous, and both Buffy and Faith couldn't afford to be worrying about anyone else in the heat of battle. They were armed to the teeth. Both of them had a crossbow slung over their backs. Buffy had a small knife slung on each hip, stakes in her pockets, and she carried a large sword in her hand. Faith had stakes throughout her jacket pockets, a knife at her hips, and carried two short swords in both of her hands. They were lucky that they didn't get pulled over by the police as they walked down the sidewalk towards the ruins of Sunnydale High School. Everyone who had looked at them had stayed clear of them and stared at them as they walked down the main street of Sunnydale. They rounded the corner, and Buffy saw Faith stop as she kept on walking. Buffy stopped and turned and looked at Faith, who was staring at the ruins of Sunnydale High School.

"Come on. Let's go. What's keeping you?" Buffy asked her. She saw Faith just turn and look at her. 

"It's just that I've never seen it in the daylight before," Faith replied as she looked on the ruins of the Sunnydale High School, which reminded her of her time along side the Mayor, when everything was good, and she could ignore the things which would bring her down. 

"Come on," Buffy said to her, urging her on. Faith put one foot in front of the other, as she slowly began to walk towards where the Hellmouth resided. 

Just before they were going to enter the High School, Faith spoke up. 

"You'd think that they'd pull this thing down or something. Wouldn't it be a safety hazard?" Faith said. 

"Yeah, but the construction crews think the place is haunted, and that if they pulled it down it would be bad karma or something," Buffy replied. "Which, yeah, is kind of true." Buffy shoved the sword she was carrying into the ground, pulled the crossbow off of her back, loaded it out of a quiver she was carrying strapped to her back, and shot at the wall effectively lodging a crossbow bolt into the wall. It was a signal that both Buffy and Faith had entered the High School and were on their way to the Hellmouth. They had agreed on a signal, so if Willow and Giles recovered in time to help, they'd know if the Slayers were inside the High School as long as the crossbow bolt was in the wall. 

Faith and Buffy both entered what used to be the main hall of the Sunnydale High School, stepping over fallen pieces of debris as they walked down the hall. 

"Can't believe this place once used to be a High School," Faith said. They kept walking down what slightly resembled a corridor towards where the Library used to be. When they were in the corridor that lead to the Library, they were both surprised to find it relatively clear of debris. 

"This is new," Buffy said. 

"What? You've been here before?" Faith asked. 

"Um, yeah. Had to stop some demons from sacrificing themselves to open the Hellmouth," Buffy replied. Buffy stopped as she realised something. "Speaking of which… if the Hellmouth's open, don't you expect it to be a lot noisier?" She looked to Faith, who just met her gaze with a blank stare. Buffy thought that she didn't get it, but Faith was thinking. "You know, big demons, screeching and crashing around."

"Maybe one's already gotten out and another one's on it's way. Maybe that's what cleared this path," Faith suggested. They kept on walking down the hallway, hugging the walls; Buffy on one side, Faith on the other. When they reached what used to be the entrance to the Library, Buffy peaked her head around the corner and let out a gasp of surprise. Faith, who was standing behind Buffy, couldn't see anything, so she ran across the small opening to the ruins of a wall on the other side and stuck her head around the corner. "Shit B. Didn't you monitor this thing?" Faith whispered. 

"We couldn't. We were kind of pre-occupied," Buffy replied. 

"With what?" Faith asked. She really didn't want to know, but it was more of a statement than a question. She stuck her head around the corner again and looked inside. The ruins of the Library were gone, or were at least on the outside. Wooden walls had been constructed in a large room where the Library used to be. The ground had been cleared, and there were two large holes in the ground. One; the Hellmouth, the other, a Tunnel leading underground. Around the Hellmouth, there stood a couple of vampires, the likes of which Faith had never seen before. "What are those?" Faith asked Buffy. 

"I don't know. But they look tough," Buffy replied. 

"Four against two, I say we take em," Faith said, her body tensing as she did so and her double short swords being raised.

"Faith, wait," Buffy said. 

"Wait for what? We can take em. They can't be too tough," Faith whispered back. It was then that a figure walked into sight. They could both tell that it was a human figure cloaked in red robes, they didn't know what it was there for, but it didn't look good. Faith started to move back to where Buffy was, on the other side of the former entrance to the Library, when she stepped on a piece of flooring that gave way under her weight, making a lot of noise. Buffy just watched as all the vampires in the room, plus the red cloaked figure turned and looked in their direction. 

"Looks like we fight," Buffy said while tightening her grip on her sword. She looked to Faith, who was already getting her leg out of the hole it had sunken into. Buffy moved forward into the room, and saw one of the old vampires coming towards her. Faster than she had ever expected, the Vampire struck out, swinging it's closed fist for her head, which she barely had time to avoid. Before she knew what was happening, it's other hand was coming from the other direction and struck her under her shoulder, sending her stumbling to the side. She recovered to see the vampire coming towards her, and she saw that he had a companion that was approaching them. This time when the vampire struck out, Buffy used her sword to block the blow, successfully cutting it's arm and allowing her a split second to attack. She used the momentum of the vampire's arm hitting the sword to swing it around her head, kneel down and let the sword bite into the vampire's side. It roared in pain and stumbled backwards. "One down, three to go," Buffy said. She looked over to Faith, who was surprisingly doing better than her, using her double short swords. She was fending off two of the weird type of vampires. 

The next vampire was upon her before she knew what was happening, and this one was much more coordinated than the first. It dodged Buffy's attempts to hack away at it with her sword, and waited until it had the perfect opportunity. It charged at Buffy, grabbed hold of her shoulders, leaned into her and literally used her as a battering ram against the wooden wall on the opposite side of the room, taking the wind out of her and hurting her a fair bit. The Vampire backed off for only a second, which was all it took for Buffy's legs to start to sink to the ground and the sword to drop out of her hand. She was fairly sure that there was something important inside of her that had been broken by the charge. The vampire was upon her again, which forced her to the ground, and was growling at her in a primal rage. Buffy knew that it was going to literally rip her throat out with it's bare teeth. Buffy tried to struggle, and to fight back, but every attempt she made to fight back made the vampire knee her in the stomach, crippling her more. She looked over to Faith, in the hope that she would be doing better, but she saw Faith pinned up against the wall by one vampire and being completely pummelled by the other. 

Buffy reached her hands out and wrapped them around the vampire's neck in an attempt to keep it's jaws away from her. She squeezed for all that she was worth, but it barely did anything to the vampire. The other one that she had injured was back now, standing above the vampire that was attacking her. In a last ditch effort, Buffy shoved against the vampire's neck as hard as she could in hope to get it away from her at least a little, which seemed to work. The Vampire was sent backwards a little bit, which gave Buffy enough time to reach down and grab the two knives that she was carrying, and then bury them in each side of the vampire, just under the rib cage. It roared in pain, and Buffy pulled out the blood drenched knives, and in one swift movement, drove both of them through each side of the vampire's neck, snapping the spine and decapitating the vampire, which exploded in a burst of dust. 

The first vampire was on her instantly: Buffy didn't even have the time to get up. She used the knives against the vampire in defence, successfully wounding it. Every time it would go to lash out at her, Buffy made sure that there was a knife blade waiting there. Eventually, the vampire backed off, and Buffy noticed that it wasn't because of her, but it was because the red cloaked figure was standing near the other hole in the ground and was beckoning to the vampires. They backed away from Buffy and Faith, and when Buffy tried to follow, the red cloaked figure raised it's hand and the air in front of Buffy shimmered and kept her back. She dropped to one knee, put a knife down on the ground on each side of her, unslung her crossbow from off of her back, took aim and fired, and found that the crossbow bold just hit the same wall of shimmering air that protected the red cloaked figure. She watched as the vampires jumped down the hole, followed by the red cloaked figure. She collapsed back down onto the ground, exhausted and injured. She tilted her head up to look at Faith, and saw that she was lying on the ground, large lumps having have formed all over her body and that she was barely conscious. From the direction that Buffy remembered the entrance to the room was, Buffy heard a noise and looked up to see Willow and Giles standing there, Willow floating above the ground and her eyes and hair completely black. 

"Giles, we're too late," Buffy heard Willow say before she lapsed into unconsciousness. 

___________

There's that chapter. Your reviews will be much appreciated. Advice will be listened to, but I've got a plan for this story and I tend to stick to it. 

There are a couple of ways this can go. There's one way where it all gets finished up in this story, and there's another way where there's a THIRD story, don't know what's going to happen there. Don't worry though, either way, there's PLENTY to go in this story. But if you want to know, I'm kinda leaning towards finishing it all up in this one, because I want to get back to my other series (Slayers Series).

Next Chapter - Chapter 21 - Perfect Timing.

Aussie. 


	22. Chapter 21 Perfect Timing

****

Authors Note: Here's the next chapter. Fairly long one, but all my chapters of late have been pretty long.

Some stuff happens in this chapter! Very good, I think so anyway. There's a dream sequence though, that I'm not sure came out as clearly or as logically as I wanted it to, I was kind of having a writers block for the first half of this chapter, so if things don't seem to make any sense, that's why. Things are hotting up now. Now, in reply to reviews.

****

Darklight: Sorry, but I'm not gonna rush this story to get back to my other series. In My Opinion, this is better than my other series, and by the time I'm done, my ideas for the other series won't even compare to this one. I'm going to do this properly, and when I get done, I get done. Also, I can't really remember where I was going for the other one. I have a general idea. (There was gonna be 3 parts to it, each as long as the first part - ie, 70,000 words or so), and I know what going to happen at the end of each part of the series (ie, book 2, book 3), but I don't know the little stuff. When I get back to it, it may be awhile before the chapters start rolling in, because I got to go and read the whole thing again. 

****

Queen B: It will be explained why there isn't much traffic around the hellmouth later on in the story. When you look at this whole series, about 1/5 of it so far has actually been in Sunnydale, and there's a reason for that. The explanation as to why will possibly be one of the biggest events to happen in this whole series here and probably one of the biggest things that I'm ever gonna write. Thanks for the reviews and the comments too! Really appreciated. 

________________-

And, another thing just to say to everyone in general. Don't ya just love it how everything's tying in together. ALL of this series has been about different people all the time, pretty much doing their own thing, and it was a bit hard to see how they were all related, except for everyone doing the same thing (Fighting The First/Doing The First's bidding etc etc), and that everything was pretty unrelated. Don't ya just love it how everything's tying in together. Like, the whole situation with Skye and Amanda and Samantha and Montague. Bet none of youse expected that to have ANYthing to do with a Slayer. Expect more things like this to happen!

_____________________ 

Chapter 21

Perfect Timing

They stood on the roof of the warehouse. Below them, they watched as the group moved into the warehouse, weapons raised and on the alert. He watched as his former group entered the warehouse, ready for anything that might be waiting. They were going to let them get the ball of energy back, after all they had done to retrieve it, and they were just going to let them take it back. Angelus didn't understand that fact. He could see the advantages, but after seeing what that tiny amount of energy could do earlier, he wasn't interested in giving up something that powerful so easily. 

"Settle Angelus," a voice said behind him. A figure stepped up beside him and looked down at the same sight that Angelus was. 

"Tell me again, why are we doing this?" Angelus asked. The figure of Buffy Summers just rolled her eyes and began to speak, all the while looking down on Angel's former group. 

"Because, they are just doing exactly what I want them to do," The First said to him. Below them, the group walked up to the pentacle, where a small ball of blue energy was residing on the ground. Angelus watched as various members of the group formed around the ball, crossbows raised all on the alert for something to come at them. "They will think that they have had a small victory against us by retrieving Cordelia's energy, but they don't realise that I wish them to," the image of Buffy Summers said. 

"But we're giving them something that we need," Angelus replied. "You're giving them back the biggest thing that we've taken from them." There was a long pause, as Angelus watched in amazement as small blue balls of energy seemed to form out of the air and congregate into the one place, forming a larger ball of energy. He watched as this took the form of a human, and then skin and details appeared, looking like Cordelia Chase. 

"Amazing, isn't it?" The First asked, rhetorically. 

"Yes, it is," Angelus replied. They watched as they all talked and mulled around and greeted their friend back. "We could take them now, kill every one of them in an instant," Angelus said. 

"Yes, we could. But that would be no fun now would it?" The First replied. 

"Oh. I think it would be quite fun. It would be a ball," Angelus replied. For a long time, nothing was said until the group below them started to leave. 

"Yes, it would be wouldn't it. But, Angelus. You don't see the big picture," The image of Buffy Summers replied. Angelus watched as they entered the cars, and began to drive down the street. "You see, they're leaving. They're going to Sunnydale, where they think they're needed. What they don't know, is that by going there, the girl will be doing much more damage than what I would ever be able to coax out of her." Angelus watched as the cars rounded the corner and were out of the distance. He turned and looked at the Image of Buffy Summers. Even as Angelus, he was amazed by her. Or maybe it was the fact that this was the first time either he, or Angelus had seen the girl in the sunlight, even if she weren't really the real thing, the sunlight fell on her as if she were. "And then, when the time is right, we'll take her from them and bring her over to our side." The image of Buffy Summers said while standing on top of the warehouse with Angelus in the middle of the day. 

He had now walked right around what left of the town, and it was literally in ruins. There wasn't one building that remained upright and not damaged in some way. Most of the buildings were in complete ruin; ceiling's caved in, walls destroyed and their rubble strewn all over the surrounding area. He didn't want to know what had happened during his time away. Spike figured that time must have gone slower in whatever dimension he was in before he came here; making the short time that he thought he was away actually take much longer in real time. 

"That bloody driver," Spike cursed referring to the driver of the four-wheel-drive that only spoke in cryptic to him when he was in the desert place. He still wasn't used to the sunlight, it hurt his eyes. He looked up at the sky, squinting as he did so, and he noticed something very strange. The clouds and the sun were all blurred. "Pollution must have gotten really bad in the _whole year I was missing!" _Spike cursed out loud. Then, suddenly a thought came into his head trying to explain the blurred sky. Spike was only a couple of hundred yards from one of the roads leading outside of the town. He turned and set off with a new purpose and finally something to do. 

An hour later, he was standing on the highway, the _Welcome to Sunnydale _sign two miles back or so. Ahead of him, he saw just what he expected; more highway, but, the image in front of him was blurred just as the sky had been. He walked on, and soon, he met a force that kept him back. He tried walking forward more, but the air shimmered and the more force that he tried to exert walking forward, the harder he was pushed backwards. He reached out his hand to touch the barrier that was in front of him. Unexpected, the air shimmered, and allowed his hand to go through. He pushed his arm through the barrier further and further and was surprised when it went straight through it like water. He pushed his arm through a bit more, but Spike quickly drew it back as his whole body was violently shocked by what seemed to be electricity. 

"Bleedin' hell," he cursed. He stepped back from the barrier and picked up a fairly large stone which was at his feet. He threw it towards the barrier and watched as the air shimmered and the stone passed through it, but then was instantly vaporised. Spike just raised his eyebrows at that. That's when he saw something moving on the other side of the barrier. Four dark figures in the distance were moving along the highway, and they were moving very fast. He watched as they came around the curve and were heading straight for him. He backed away slowly as these shapes approached the barrier, and him at an amazing speed. But then, he remembered the stone that he threw at the barrier and how it vaporised, and Spike assumed that the barrier was either to keep things in, or keep things out. Right now, he hoped that it was both. He stood there, smug, as the shapes approached. But, he got the shock of his life when at one instant, he head the roar of a motor cycle, and the shapes came bursting through the barrier; revealing to be people dressed in black on black motor cycles. The barrier rippled where they came through, and before Spike knew what was happening, four motor cycles had come through the barrier, two of which had already sped past him.

He turned and looked behind him to see that the two people on motor cycles who had passed him were turning around, and that the two in front of him were slowing down. In a few seconds, Spike was surrounded. He watched as each figure pulled a weird looking weapon off their backs; it was the same kind of weapon that Spike had seen the figure on the motor bike attack him, and the big black thing with the previous night. It was like a rifle, or a crossbow, but at the front of it, there were four cylinders attached on each face of the rectangular barrel, and each cylinder had a hole at the end, and looked long enough to hold a couple of crossbow bolts each. Spike knew that they shot crossbow bolts, he had seen that the previous night, but he didn't know how. 

"Don't move vampire," one of the figures said from behind a completely black helmet with a completely black visor. 

__

There was nothingness. There wasn't any other way to describe it. It was just pure nothingness. Not black, now white, not grey, not empty, not full, not anything, not nothing. It was just nothingness. Suddenly out of the nothingness, her world came into view. She could see herself and countless others, all armed with weapons upon what seemed like an old battle field. There were bodies everywhere, some that were recognisable as human, and some that obviously weren't. Beside her, she could see her friends and companions. She could also see others standing with them, who she didn't know. She could sense in the air that everyone knew that the stakes were high, that there was far much more than their lives on the line. Around her, the sun beat down and made the conditions worse. She saw herself and her companions, bruised and bloodied, moving among the dead, seeing those that they knew and loved. She knew that there was no time for their dead, they had been through this before. As much as they wanted to mourn them and give them a proper burial, they couldn't. They had to leave them, they had to move on and be strong and not let their deaths get to them. Perhaps, after it was all over, there would be time to return and give their fallen companions their proper rights, but not until it was over. She could tell that everyone was tired and exhausted, but there was something that kept them going on. She saw others like her, but not like her at the same time. She saw another group arrive, like them, and she recognised the leader of the group. It was the other one like her, the one that had just returned. She was leading her own group against the dark. 

The images faded, and above her, she could see a bright light and could hear voices. She could sense that she was moving.

"She's bleeding internally. We have to operate now," she heard a voice say. Slowly, her eyes opened and she saw a white ceiling moving along with white halogen lights. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but she couldn't. 

__

She was standing on the top of a hill now, in the desert, the sun high in the sky, the same people around her; her friends and others with them, as well as others that had joined the fight out of their own will, or that were forced to because of circumstances beyond their control. Below them, she could see the others like her, fighting against the old and twisted vampires. She looked around at all of them, everyone loaded up with weapons. She was outside the scene, and she knew that she was just looking on whatever that was going on. She watched herself from a distance, pull a strange weapon off of her back which was strapped over the top of an other one and start to run down the hill. She watched as she raised the weapon, and in a quick succession, four arrows shot out of it as the front of the weapon spun around the handle. She watched as the four arrows hit one of the vampires squarely in the chest, sending it flying back into the ground. She watched herself bring the weapon to her chest and spin the front of it around in the opposite direction that it had just spun, and watched as she picked off targets with the strange weapon. She watched as the weapon ran out of ammunition and she discarded it, and pulled two short swords out of their sheaths that were hanging by her side. She watched herself as with skill, agility and strength that she never dreamed she would possess, as she cut through the vampires, leaving a trail of dust and blood behind her in her wake. She watched as others did the same as her, using the same moves and weapons, and as the vampires fell before them. She watched as her weapons were knocked out of her hands, and she reached for the last weapon strapped to her back. She watched in pure fascination as she twirled around with the weapon, leaving nothing alive around her. The weapon was like a staff, but had sharp curved blades on each end (like Gunn's axe in Angel, but longer and has those kind of blades on each end). She watched as she literally cut a vampire into pieces. She watched herself, a look of despair come over her as more and more vampires began to arrive. She watched herself, a look of pure horror cross her face when she saw someone float up into the air, and power just radiate off of her. 

"No! Don't do this!" She heard herself scream. She watched as energy radiated off of this person, swirling red and black energy, going towards the vampires and turning them to dust. She watched as her friend's head was thrown back, and she fell to the ground, convulsing. She watched as she saw her friend's body violently shake around on the ground. She watched, as no one dared to get any closer, no one from their side, and not one of the remaining vampires. She watched as the convulsions stopped. She knew what had happened. There was no hope now. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another one of her friends approach her. She saw this friend turn into pure blue light and encompass her friend's body lying on the floor. She watched, as the blue light was pushed away, and the blue light form again into a person. She knew that that would happen, there was no hope now. She watched as her friend's body stood up and turned around and smiled at her. 

"You lose Slayer," she heard come out of her friend's mouth. Instantly, red-black energy swirled around her, and instead of heading out for the vampires, it headed straight for them. The energy swirled around all of them, and within minutes, most of the people standing beside her and behind her were dead. She watched as two beams of swirling red-black energy entered her other friend, and as she exploded in a shower of blue light. She looked around her, bodies lying all over the ground and blood everywhere. She was literally standing in a field of bodies. All those around her that had once been alive, and that had once been her friends, weren't there any more. She felt a distinctly dark feeling in the pit of her stomach, which she knew was only going to get worse. But still, inside her, there was a spark, something struggling to not let everything get on the top of her. 

She was the last one alive, and she had to fight.

"No one's bringing you back this time," the body of her last remaining friend said. She turned around, ready to fight against this thing; that she could finally fight against, but Buffy was met with oblivion.

Buffy could now hear sounds around her. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't quite get them open. She heard footsteps and the rush of feet. 

"She's awake. B's awake!" She heard someone yell. She couldn't remember their name, but she definitely knew this person. She heard the feet come back into where ever she was, and heard more footsteps rushing towards her. She opened her eyes and saw that she was lying in her bed in her room, and that Faith was standing beside the bed. She saw Dawn and then Willow, Giles and Xander burst into the room, almost taking the door off its hinges. 

Eventually, after everyone had finished mulling over her, and making sure that she felt okay, Buffy asked what happened. 

"After those things attacked you, we found you and you were unconscious. We took both you and Faith to the hospital, and they said that you had internal bleeding. They agreed that they'd fix you right up and then let us have you. Giles says that some of the people in the hospital know who you are, and all he had to do was pull some strings," Willow explained. "And then we brought you back here, and you were unconscious for a long time, and then we took shifts watching over you, and I had to talk to Giles about some things, which we haven't done yet, and Faith agreed to watch over you…" Willow started. 

"Willow… babbling," Xander said while touching her arm. 

"Oh, right. Yeah, sorry," Willow replied. 

"How long was I out?" Buffy asked. 

"It's now, nine p.m.," Giles replied. 

"I was unconscious for that long?" Buffy asked back, not needing an answer, just showing her surprise. There was a long silence as everyone didn't know what to do, Buffy had never been unconscious for that long or needed rescuing in the past. "What about the Hellmouth?" she asked. 

"The, uh, Hellmouth, seems to have a barrier around it, preventing anything getting out," Giles replied. Buffy just furrowed her brows when Giles said that, thinking about something. 

"What about those vamps Giles? You said you'd explain when B woke up," Faith said to him. 

"What? You know about them?" Buffy asked her Watcher. 

"Uh, yes. I do. They're called the _Turokhan_. Their origins are unknown, but they are believed by many to be another race of vampires, long extinct. There is also a theory that they are the first vampires. They are mostly animal like and very aggressive, and as you can see, very dangerous. No one has seen a _Turokhan _for around a millennia, and even then they were extremely rare," Giles explained. "They're re-emergence in Sunnydale must have something to do with the turn of events, and whatever is happening over the globe. I can not see any other reason for their presence." Everyone looked to him as they took in the information, letting it sink in. 

"So, we've got some vamps that can kick both mine and Faith's asses without much effort… coming out of the Hellmouth?" Buffy said. 

"One can assume that," Giles replied. Buffy opened her mouth to say something, when the a flaming arrow came in through the window way, not having any glass to face after Willow's outburst earlier that day had smashed all the glass in the house, and lodged itself in the ceiling of Buffy's room. Xander raced to the wall beside the window and stuck his head out far enough so he could see. 

"There's vampires on the front lawn, about twenty or so," Xander said. "And they don't look happy," he added. 

"They can't get in, right? We should be pretty safe," Dawn said, right before an arrow came in through the window, barely missing her and embedding itself in the wall. Xander put his head around the corner again and looked out. 

"They're shooting through all the windows," Xander said to them all. 

"Get out of the room, and get to the weapons," Faith said. Buffy moved to sit up, but she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her stomach. 

"Ooh," she let out. "Giles!" she exclaimed. She watched as he turned around and looked at her. "Make sure the girls are okay," Buffy said, referring to the Potential Slayers. She slowly got up, keeping low to avoid the arrow that occasionally came in through the window. 

Willow followed Xander downstairs and headed straight for the weapons chest. She hadn't remembered to keep low, and was reminded as an arrow went soaring past in front of her head. She grabbed a crossbow out of the weapons chest. 

"There's more weapons in the basement," she said to the others, Faith mainly. She grabbed some bolts and loaded the crossbow. Taking cover behind the couch, she aimed at a vampire that she could see on the front lawn through the already shattered windows. She fired the crossbow bolt, and successfully hit the vampire, but not in the chest. She ducked behind the couch and reloaded her crossbow. She heard a body thump down beside her and turned and looked to see that it was Xander, also with his own Crossbow. Willow stopped and looked around. Taking cover behind the doors, and shooting out the windows in the doors was Faith. Dawn was beside Xander, while Giles was moving around, trying to get a good spot. 

"Can't you do something?" Xander asked her. Willow looked up over the top of the couch and as fast as she could, she raised her crossbow and fired at another vampire that she could see, just missing his chest, the couple of years of practice making her fairly accurate. She ducked down behind the couch again, before replying. 

"No, I can't do something," she replied while reloading her crossbow. She and Xander both aimed over the top of the couch and fired at different vampires respectively. 

"Why not?" Xander asked her in reply, obviously wanting to know with desperate need. 

"I can't. That's what I had to speak to Giles about. I can't do it any more, I'll lose control," Willow replied to him while reloading her crossbow. "Cassia!?" Willow yelled and asked. She didn't hear anything in reply and when she turned around, she saw that Cassia was sitting on the floor in the kitchen, chanting something. She couldn't hear what it was, but she lip-read for a while and she figured out what spell she was doing. "Cassia's doing a protection spell for the house, it shouldn't be too long," Willow told Xander and yelled to any one else who was listening. 

"Cover me!" Both Willow and Xander heard someone yell. Willow looked up to see Faith holding a knife in one hand while a stake in another and looking at them. Both Xander and Willow's looks at her signified that they were going to do it. Willow waited until Faith had started moving and fired through the front lounge room window, Xander doing the same. Willow saw Buffy out of the corner of her eye coming up the basement stairs slowly leading the potentials and carrying another crossbow. Willow wondered how many crossbows they actually had with them in the house and realised that it must have been a lot. She looked back out the front window to see Faith fighting off two vampires at once, but having difficulty. 

"Faith's injured," Willow said to no one in particular. "Her injuries from before are going to slow her down." Suddenly, a blue flash of energy passed in front of her vision, obviously outside the house. 

"The Barrier's up!" She heard Giles yell from his point. He had over turned a table and was using that for cover against the arrows that kept streaming in through the windows. Willow looked up over the couch again and saw that Faith had left their line of fire, and she was amazed that she didn't' get hit by an arrow herself. Suddenly, there was a loud crack and the blue flash passed in front of her eyes again. Willow spun to look to where she had last seen Cassia, and saw that she literally took a blow. 

"They've got magick users!" Willow yelled to everyone. She fired her crossbow again, hitting a vampire square in the head, right between the eyes, successfully incapacitating it as the crossbow bolt penetrated the skull and went into the brain. They were running out of options, Faith was their best hope at taking out some vampires, and she was no where to be seen. Buffy was out of the equation, she couldn't risk opening up her internal injuries again from the previous fight she had been in, and Willow was thankful that Buffy knew that.

"Faith get inside!" Buffy yelled. Willow had finished reloading her crossbow again, and when she looked up above the couch she could just see Faith. She, Xander and Giles let off a barrage of crossbow bolts at once, giving Faith enough time to come inside, but she dragged the vampire with her. 

"Come in," She said before dragging it through the windows. She had bloodied it up a fair bit and it was helpless to her. She just about threw it on the floor, and Willow was surprised to see that it didn't get up again. Faith bent down and stuck the stake she had in one hand into her chest, but Willow saw that the Vampire didn't combust into a pile of dust. She saw Faith pull the stake out and this time, stab it into the vampire's stomach, then both her shoulders, arms and legs. She could hear the vampire's screams of pain each time. "You there, go get some rope and bind her," Faith commanded to one of the potentials. Faith watched as the Potential looked on at the vampire, obviously scared. "Look, she can't hurt you, just stay away from the mouth." Willow turned back and payed attention to the battle, aiming at the next vampire that she thought she had a clear shot at it's heart. 

It was literally a siege. The vampires were outside the house and shooting arrows inside, not able to enter the house, while the occupants were laying low and firing back. Willow looked down to her crossbow and saw that she only had one bolt left. She stuck the crossbow above the sofa, and then peaked her head over the top, took careful aim, and fired. Successfully, she hit a vampire in the head, even though she was aiming for it's heart, but it was a fair way away. She looked down in horror and knew that she didn't have any crossbow bolts left. She looked to Xander beside her, who looked back at her. 

"I'm out," he said. 

"Me too," Willow replied to him. They weren't going to get out of this very soon. And, if Willow's brain was right, and the vampires were fairly intelligent, they'd get some kind of creatures that could come inside the house very soon, and then they would be in trouble. Willow just preyed that the vampires weren't intelligent. Willow sneaked a look out above the sofa, looking to see what had happened as the vampires had stopped firing arrows in through the front window. Suddenly, she saw three vampires turn to dust, and she saw all the vampires turn their attention away from the house. She saw vampires going flying through the air, and she saw a ball of green energy go and hit three vampires, sending them flying away and putting them to sleep at the same time. She noticed that the others were looking out at the scene in the front of the house too, taking notice of the recent events that were taking place. She heard an animalistic growl as she heard another vampire turn to dust. The sounds of physical combat could now be heard, and Willow saw Faith jump through the window, going back outside, quickly followed by Giles. Willow put down her crossbow and backed away to the weapons chest which was only a few feet behind her and pulled out an axe, and right behind her, Xander did the same instead he pulled out a short sword. They went after Giles and Faith out the window and Willow saw a sight she would never have expected. 

There was a figure, cloaked in red robes, raising his hands to ward off a magickal attack as tree branches were snapped off of the tree out in the front of the Summers' house and sent flying towards him. She watched as a barrage of energy raced at the figure, but it effectively stopped it in its tracks. She saw two vampires go flying, some of the remaining few that stood and fought. She saw Faith and Giles attacking the last vampires that remained, while there was the sounds of a fight happening down the street. A vampire came running at her and Xander, and as if they were one person, Willow bent down and went to slice at the vampire's mid section. While the vampire was distracted by Willow's attack against it for a couple of tenths of a second, it didn't realise that Xander's sword was heading straight for its neck. The vampire was successfully decapitated, and it left a stunned Xander and Willow standing there, looking at each other. 

"Now that was cool," Xander said. 

"Uh huh," Willow replied back to him. She knew that it was only a fluke that that had happened like it had, there had been plenty of other times that proved so. She watched as the figure cloaked in red robes retreated onto the road and then backed away, trying to do as much damage as possible as it retreated. She saw chunks of bitumen go flying after it, which gave it all the incursion to get out of the area. Willow and Xander had followed it out onto the street, and Willow turned around behind her to see who it had been that had driven the red cloaked figure off. In front of she and Xander, stood two women. One had long auburn hair and was dressed in dark clothes, and the other had long red hair and was also dressed in fairly dark clothes. She could tell that both of these people were magick users, just by the way they held themselves, the air that surrounded them, and the fact that one of them had sent bits of bitumen flying after the red cloaked person. Behind her, she heard heavy footsteps approaching, and Willow spun around to see a hairy creature coming towards them, changing as it did so. She recognised something in it, and her eyes went wide as she saw the last person she had ever expected to see. 

"Oz," Willow said in disbelief. 

"Hey Wills. We thought you could use some help," Oz replied. 

________________

So, that's the chapter. Next chapter coming up 

****

Chapter 22 - Catching Up. 

Thanks for the reviews folks. 

Oh, yes, a little note about dream sequences… you've probably already made your assumptions about that dream, but just remember that dreams aren't always 100% accurate. Not all the details may be known, and some things aren't clear. And the person's brain that has the dream sequence usually skews things a bit. That's all I'm saying about that.


	23. Chapter 22 Catching Up

****

Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. Some interesting things develop here. 

Thanks for the reviews everyone. It's very much appreciated. 

Woohoo! This has breached the 72,000 word barrier (not counting Author's Notes). It's now officially my longest piece of writing yet (The other being _Slayers Series; Book 1: New Beginnings_, at 71,911 words - which I will be getting back to after I finish this)

****

Reply to reviews: Don't worry, Anya's got a very important role in this story. It's going to be big. I know that it appears that she's not here, but she is. It just can't be said what she's doing. 

I just got a really good idea about what can happen with the whole Spike thing… I'm stealing an idea _straight _ out of Season 7 of Buffy, but I'm putting my own twist on it and am going to change it so it is appropriate to this story. It won't be coming around for the next couple of chapters, maybe even something like 5 or 6 chapters or so, but it's going to reveal a lot of things, and make things a hell of a lot more confusing as well. This thing will have to do with Spike, but it will have an effect on everyone. 

____________________-

Chapter 22

Catching Up

He'd gotten out of worse situations than this before, plenty of times. He tried to remember some time when he'd been in a worse situation than this, but all the times he could remember he had backup; he had someone else with him, wether it be Druscilla or Buffy. He looked at the strange looking weapon that was pointed straight at his chest. He'd seen these things in action the previous night, and he knew that they were particularly nasty. But Spike knew that it wasn't the weapon that made it dangerous, it was the person behind the weapon. He looked to his side, and he saw another one pointing at his chest. He looked to his other side, saw one pointing at his head, and he guessed that if he looked behind him, he'd see another one being pointed at him from these people on motorbikes. Very slowly, he walked forward until he was just feet away from the person on the motorbike in front of him. 

"I said, don't move!" the voice commanded. Spike stopped and looked straight into the visor of the person, hoping that he was looking straight into their eyes. He started slowly walking towards the person on the motorbike, which Spike now knew, was female. He could tell from the voice that spoke to him. He was just inches away now, and he raised his hand up to the weapon. He _was_ going to put his hand on the weapon and lower it slowly and try to reason with these people, but before his hand even touched the weapon, the front of it spun around in quick succession, and Spike felt a blinding pain in his hand. He only had time to look at the crossbow bolt that was sticking right through it before he fell to the ground. Two of the other figures had shot a crossbow bolt into each of his thighs, sending him plummeting to the ground with a scream.

"Skye, we need to take him through the barrier. It's not going to be safe here in a couple of minutes. They know we're here," one of the riders said to another one of them. The last thing Spike saw while he was in Sunnydale was a gloved fist coming towards his face.

The rider who knocked Spike out put her hands on him and a small yellow glow came out of her hands and went around his whole body, and then faded again. Suddenly, the rider's head snapped up. 

"They're coming. Let's go, we can't afford to deal with the Syophers today," the first figure who spoke said. "Skye, grab William the Bloody and take him with you," the figure said. The one called Skye easily hoisted Spike over her shoulder, and put him down on the motorbike and got on behind him. With a roar of their engines, the figures on the motorbikes turned and rode through the barrier. They were just in time as five Syophers shimmered into view just one-hundred yards from where the group had just been. 

She had walked through the city, seemingly unnoticed by everyone around her. It was eerie how no one noticed her in the middle of the day walking down the sidewalk, so set apart from everyone else. But of course, that was what she wanted to happen. She had just gotten the idea soon after her outburst in the cafe earlier that day. She had re-sculptured the energies around her, so that anyone who looked her way would see her, exactly how she was, but it wouldn't register in their brains that it was a person that they were looking at. If someone asked them about her, only five seconds after she had left their line of sight, they wouldn't remember her. The spell would remain effective as long as she didn't touch someone, only then it would sink into their brains that she was actually there. It was a good spell, and she had made it up entirely by herself. It was now night time, and she didn't know where she was going, or what she was doing. It wasn't until her mother came to her and told her what she needed to do, that she had a sense of purpose again. 

"Hello Amy," Catherine Madison said to her. 

"Hello… _mother_," Amy Madison replied, spiteful of what had occurred earlier in Sunnydale _(Reference to War Cries - Chapter 9 - Just when things were looking up)_. "I know you're not her," Amy said before anything else could happen. 

"You're right, I'm not," The image of Catherine Madison replied. 

"Then what do you want from me?" Amy demanded of it. She didn't like this thing, it had bled her to raise that, thing, over the Hellmouth. It had manipulated her. She didn't care that it was manipulating her, she cared that she was being manipulated. 

"Only what's best for you," the image of Catherine Madison replied. 

"What was that energy for? Why did you give that to me today?" Amy demanded. "What does it _really_ do?"

"It does what it did… you were running too hot for too long Amy. You would have died if you kept up the way you were going," Catherine Madison said to her. "I don't want you to die Amy." For a second, Amy wanted to believe that it was her mother in front of her, and that her mother was the kind and nurturing mother that she had always wanted her to be. She wanted to believe that what was being said was true, and whatever this thing was, actually cared for her and wanted her to be alive. But she knew that she couldn't trust these things, and that she was being used.

"What do you want from me?" Amy asked the image of her mother again. 

"I want what you want. I want you to do a job for me," Catherine replied. "Willow Rosenburg has gained too much power, and she doesn't know how to use it," Catherine started to explain. As soon as Willow was mentioned, The First had Amy's full attention. "She's dangerous Amy. She almost destroyed the world once, there's nothing stopping her from doing it again." 

"And you want me to take on Willow?" Amy asked the image of her mother. 

"Yes, I do. But not alone," Catherine replied. "Willow is too strong for you. She is too strong for any single person. It will take a large number of witches to take her down, and that's what I want you to do Amy… Go out, bring others to your cause. Tell them how she abuses magick. Tell them how much power she has. Convince them to join you to take her out. That much power isn't meant to be handled by one person alone. Tell them that she's a threat to the world and make them believe that they are doing the right thing by banding together to fight her, because, after all, they are. Think of what could happen when she loses control again. It's going to be soon, and it's going to happen. You'll be doing the world a favour by bringing Willow down. Think of how you will be seen," The First started to explain. "Amy Madison. The leader of witches who brought down the most dangerous witch in history," Catherine Madison said while grabbing Amy's hand and holding it in her own. "Do you like the sound of that?" Catherine asked her. 

"Oh yes," Amy replied. 

"Then go," Catherine said, while purple energy started to flow down her arm and up Amy's. Slowly, her eyes and hair started to return to her normal colour, and her veins retreated back to where they were meant to be in her body, not as close to the skin as they had been. Catherine Madison released Amy's hand and gave her a little shove down the street to get her moving. "She's too dangerous Amy. She's a threat to the world. Remember this," Catherine exclaimed after her. When Amy had rounded the corner, and there was no one left on the street, the image of Catherine Madison changed and shifted. It slowly split apart into two, until there stood two versions of Catherine Madison. One of them smiled, before disappearing in a flash of light. The other morphed and changed into that of a Syopher, before it shimmered out of visibility. 

She looked at him in pure wonder, trying to come up with reasons that explained why he was here, and why he and the people he was with had rescued them from the vampire attack. 

"Oz," Xander said beside her. Oz just nodded in his direction while he was still walking towards them. Willow's eyes were fixed on him as he walked towards her, his eyes fixed on her. She could hear noises around her, but they didn't register in her brain; that was still trying to explain everything. She looked up and saw that it wasn't even a full moon, which meant that Oz had learned to control his change. Thoughts began racing through her mind. She knew at that moment that she still cared about him, and hope came into Willow's mind. Perhaps he could fill the giant emptiness inside her that she had felt ever since Tara's death; even if it was only a little. Beside her, she heard Xander yell something. "Oz, get down!" Xander yelled as he dived onto the road, taking Willow with him. As Willow was going down to the ground, she saw the red hooded figure that had retreated had let off a large magickal blast of energy in their direction. As she hit the ground, she saw the magickal blast hit Oz in the leg and his face twist in agony as he was falling to the ground. Willow heard shouts and noises from behind her, and she didn't know what was going on. Immediately, she scrambled to her feet and went towards Oz. In her shock, he looked up and past her, and he got up on his injured leg which Willow could tell had been burnt badly and raced past her. 

"Michaela!" he exclaimed. Willow turned and watched him as he ran up to a woman who was now lying on the ground, her clothes in tatters and burns all over her stomach. Willow watched as the woman whose name must be Michaela looked up at Oz, and the way that they looked at each other. Immediately, she felt something inside her rip up. She knew that it had been stupid. As soon as she looked at Oz that night, she had gotten her hopes up that something might happen; that something might happen that would make her feel alright. She reminded herself that she was gay now, but another voice inside her head argued back that that didn't stop Oz from being Oz. After a moment, Willow was snapped out of her thoughts as Xander got up beside her and started moving off towards the fallen woman. Instantly, Willow was snapped back to reality.

__

"In all this crisis, all you can think of is yourself," a voice said inside Willow's head. It sounded like hers, but there was something off about it. She ignored it and went over to the group that had huddled around the woman on the ground.

"What happened?" Xander asked anyone in particular. 

"The magician let off two blasts. One hit Oz, the other one hit Michaela before she had time to defend herself," another woman said who had been standing right next to Michaela when it happened. 

"Get her and Oz inside, we've got First aid kits," Willow said to them. She watched as a man and the woman who had just spoke bent down and picked Michaela up off the ground. Willow watched as another man knelt down and helped Oz up to walk inside on his now injured leg. Both she and Xander raced ahead and opened the door for the two people carrying the woman. Willow raced inside and grabbed the first aid kit, and she fell over the top of the vampire Faith and one of the Potential Slayers had captured and who was now tied up on the floor. She raced into the kitchen and ducked down to the cupboards and grabbed the two first aid kits they had. Willow went back into the living room and dropped them on the floor next to the woman called Michaela. She went back into the kitchen and filled up a large jug of water and brought it back out to the group. She saw Xander explaining to the Potentials, Giles, Faith, Dawn and Buffy what had happened. 

"Nicola, can you do something?" Willow heard Oz ask the woman who had been with Michaela the whole time. 

"I can try to," the woman replied. Willow watched as the woman lay her hands just above the severe burns on Michaela's stomach, and a light yellow glow resonated out of them. She watched as the wounds started to slowly heal. "That's all I can do," the woman said. Willow couldn't believe her ears. That was all the woman could do. It wasn't much, but Willow knew that any magick user should be able to do better than that with a healing spell; she knew that she could have done better when she was just starting out with magicks. Immediately, another woman that was with Oz's group started on Michaela with the first aid kit and she started pouring water out of the jug that Willow had brought. Willow moved forward and made room for herself in the group of people who were kneeling around Michaela on the floor, who was now unconscious. 

"I can try something," Willow said softly to anyone who was listening. She saw Oz look up at her. She looked straight into his eyes, and he looked back, straight into hers.

"Okay, everyone back off. Let Willow do her work," Oz said to the strangers that were surrounding her. Willow just looked at him, and then at everyone else as they backed off. The woman who had tried to heal Michaela with magick was looking at her very strangely, and Willow couldn't place why. She put her hands above the wounds and closed her eyes. She knew that she had to use extreme concentration for this, and just stick to the basics. She had to maintain her control. That was what she had to speak to Giles about, she knew that she was losing her control. She was going to go off the deep end again, and it was going to be soon. That was why she couldn't do anything in the fight that they had just had, she knew that she would have lost control, and then the vampires would have been the last of everyone's problems. 

She opened up her senses, and she was bombarded by a number of things. She could sense the great magickal potential of the girl lying in front of her, and she could sense the extremely strong presence of the girl who had tried to heal her. She could sense this girl's energy reaching out into the world and interacting with it and touching everything around her. She could sense the amount of hostile energy that was in the air all around Sunnydale and she could sense the presence of both the Slayers near her. She could also feel something within her, buried deep and trying to claw it's way to the surface, and what terrified Willow was that it was almost there. 

She pushed just a little of her own energy out to her limbs, and pushed it out of her body and ordered it to enter the body of the woman lying in front of her. Willow opened her eyes and saw that the wounds were starting to heal at an accelerated rate and that they would be almost better in an hour or so. She looked around and saw that most of the people in Oz's group were looking at her in thankfulness, but she noticed that the other woman who had tried to heal Michaela had stepped back a far way, and was looking at Willow with wide eyes. In Willow's opinion, she looked like a deer in the headlights of a car. Willow saw the girl regain her composure, but was unsettled when the girl wouldn't stop looking at her. She stepped back from the girl and looked around. 

"We'd better start fixing this place up," Xander said out loud to everyone. Willow saw most people nod in agreement.

An hour later after the house had been fixed as much as they could get it, Oz's group were resting in their vans that they brought along, insisting that they didn't need any beds and that they had everything that they needed in their vans. They had told everyone in Sunnydale that they'd give them all the information about them in the morning, when there was no threat and everyone had had some rest. The Scooby gang was sitting around the lounge room, except for Buffy and Faith. They were in the dining room, having the vampire that they caught tied up to one of the chairs, and they were _questioning_ her. 

"You won't get anything out of me. I won't give into your interrogations," the vampire said on the chair, having large bumps and burns all over it's body, and a large number of bruises on it's face. 

"Interrogations?" Faith said while standing over the vampire. "Huh. Hey B. This vamp thinks we're interrogating it," Faith said sarcastically and generally sounding like she was amused. She took a step closer to the vampire and looked her straight in the eyes. "We haven't even started yet, we're just having some fun." Faith backed away and looked at Buffy who was standing a fair way away from the vampire. 

"I say we start," Buffy said to Faith. "I'll just go and get our, equipment," Buffy added while turning and walking into the kitchen. 

"Now we'll see if you're going to talk or not," Faith said to the vampire. The vampire didn't look scared, and Faith didn't expect it to be scared. It would have been obvious to even the most dimwitted vampire that they were just trying to scare her, and Faith was wondering exactly what Buffy was going to bring out with her. Anything that looked lethal and looked like causing a lot of damage would be really good. "You know the best thing about vampires?" Faith asked rhetorically. She left a pause for a while before she continued. "It's really hard to kill you. All we have to do is stay away from the neck and the heart, and we can pretty much do anything we want." It was that moment that Buffy came back into the dining room, carrying a knife and a vile of holy water. 

While Buffy and Faith were _questioning_ the vampire, Willow decided that it was her time that she needed to speak with Giles. She had to let him know what was happening with her, and if there was anything she could do to not lose control again. Everyone had enough to worry about; the strange vampires that they had encountered; the open Hellmouth, with a barrier across it; the vampire attack that they had just fought through. They didn't need an out of control witch on their hands. She had pulled Giles into the kitchen, and she noticed the general look of concern on his face. 

"Giles, I can't do this any more. I can't do any more magick. It feels as if I'm going to lose control again," Willow said to him. Giles just looked at her, and it was obvious that he was waiting for her to continue. "Earlier today, when the dimensional walls collapsed for only a couple of seconds, I completely lost control. It had felt like I had buried that, darkness deep down within me while we were at the coven, but that brought it back up again," Willow started. Giles just looked at her, nodding. "The Hellmouth is giving off a hell of a lot of power… pardon the pun," Willow said, realising what she had said. "Just being here in Sunnydale is hard. And earlier, when we went to the Hellmouth to get Buffy and Faith, I almost lost control from just being that close to it," Willow said. 

"I recommend that you don't even try to use any magick at all, Willow," Giles said. Willow just felt like rolling her eyes and sighing; she knew that, she didn't need Giles telling her things she already knew. "For the time being, it looks as if we have some very capable magick users with us, with Oz and his friends arriving. I saw what they did in the battle, and they look fairly talented," Giles said. "It will be alright, we will get to the bottom of this. It just hit me that we never even began your training; we never accomplished what we set out to accomplish when we went to the coven. You need to learn to use your power, in the proper manner. I'm sure, growing up here on the Hellmouth and having to use magick the way that you were forced to has led to this," Giles explained. Willow couldn't help but notice that there was something very wrong with Giles and that he wasn't acting like himself at all. "For now, I think that we need to have some rest. We'll talk again in the morning," Giles said. Willow just looked at him, and decided to go along with it. 

"Okay," she said while moving to leave the kitchen. 

Morning had finally come around, and everyone was sitting around in the Summers' Lounge room. They were both waiting for Buffy and Faith, who had stayed up most of the night interrogating the vampire they had captured, as everyone knew from the constant screams that they had heard throughout the night. Those who weren't sitting were standing, and they were in a rough circle. There a couple of sides to this circle. On one side there was Willow, Giles, Dawn, and Xander. On another side there was Oz, Michaela, who was now almost fully healed, Nicola, Brett, Naomi and Daniel. On another side sat the three potentials and Cassia. Everyone was unsure of themselves. The people from Sunnydale didn't know most of these people who were in the location that they probably spent most of their time. The people not from Sunnydale didn't know these people that they had heard stories of from wherever they had come from. Finally, Buffy and Faith entered the room and looked around at everyone, who were looking at them. 

"Good Morning everyone," Buffy said. "Nice to see that everyone's up." 

"Like sleep was so easy with the constant screaming coming from down here," Xander said, then realising that his comment was a bit harsher than he had meant it to be. "Sorry. That came out wrong."

"Don't worry about it," Faith said to him. There was a slight pause before Buffy began. 

"Okay, what we found out from the vampire," she begun. "Vamps all over town are banding together under the leadership of this red cloaked person that we saw last night, and this red cloaked person wants all of us, dead, surprise, surprise," Buffy started. Willow saw everyone looking at Buffy, not too surprised. She saw that Xander was about to say something, but Buffy continued on talking. "The way that this person, whatever it is, gets the vamps in line is that he shows them what's what. Those big dark hooded things that I told you all that I saw a while back, those things that were terrifying, literally terrifying and that cut through all the vamps…" Buffy started but was interrupted _(Reference to Post Grave - Chapter 15)_. 

"Syophers," Willow heard the girl called Naomi, one of Oz's friends, say. Everyone looked at her questioningly, everyone except those people from Oz's group. 

"Syophers. They're called Syophers, those dark hooded things," Oz said. Everyone looked at him, not knowing what he was saying. Willow saw him look around at everyone, and she knew that he knew that none of them knew what he was saying. "Don't worry. Keep going. Tell us about this, and then we'll tell you what we know," Oz said. There was a pause, as Buffy remembered what bit she was up to. 

"Okay, so this person in red, shows the vampires what these things, Seeofers, can do."

"Syophers," Oz corrected. 

"Syophers. Right," Buffy replied. 

"And then, the red cloaked person says that these Syophers will protect the vampires, from whatever they may need protecting from, as long as they form up on his side and agree to help kill us all," Faith explained. 

"But it's kind of a no-refusal deal, because if the vamps refuse, these Syopher things, they kill them all," Buffy added. Willow knew that there was something off here, and she decided she was going to voice her opinion. 

"That doesn't make sense," she said out loud. Everyone turned and looked at her. "If the red person can control these Syophers, or they work for him or whatever, and if they are the same things me and Giles saw at the Watchers Council, why do they need to control vampires to do their job. These Syophers are more than capable at doing the job, much better than vampires," Willow said _(Reference to War Cries - Chapter 12 - Watchers, Slayers and Scoobies)_. Just then, the girl that had tried to heal Michaela the night before almost jumped out of her seat and looked around at everyone, her eyes wide. 

"Something's coming!" She exclaimed. Everyone, except Oz's group, looked at the girl weirdly, very weirdly. 

"What's coming Nicola?" Brett asked. 

"I don't know, but it's powerful, whatever it is," Nicola replied, having regained some of her composure. She sat back down on her seat and closed her eyes. 

"Nicola has a remarkable psychic ability and she's able to feel the energies of things around her," Michaela said out loud. Willow just looked at her and watched as her breathing slowed and she knew that her heart rate also slowed. 

"Is it dangerous?" Oz asked. There seemed to be no reaction from Nicola as a complete silence encompassed the whole living room. After about a minute, the silence was shattered as Nicola replied. "No, but it's extremely powerful, and it's right outside," she replied. Suddenly, Willow and everyone else was startled by a knock on the door. Buffy was the one closest to the door, and trusting Nicola's word that it wasn't dangerous, she went to open it. Willow watched as Buffy stopped in mid motion as she pulled the door open, and she froze, instantly. Her mouth was half hanging open. Willow could also feel something now, even though she was trying to stop her magickal abilities, she could feel something outside, and she could feel something familiar. Willow was the first one to react, she got up and started to walk over to the open door which Buffy seemed frozen at. She looked out the doorway to the group of people standing before them, and that's when the world stood still.

_____________

There's chapter 22. Reviews would be much appreciated. 

Next chapter coming up - Chapter 23 - Shock of a Lifetime.

Things will be revealed to the Scooby Gang next chapter, and we'll find out more about Oz's group and what they've been doing. Things with Darla, Dru and Angelus will also be revealed too. Should be coming very soon. 


	24. Chapter 23 Shock of a Lifetime

****

Authors Note: In my opinion, this is a F***in awesome chapter!!!!! The last line of it is one of the 'lines of the story' (a line which people will remember and which many large events of this story will revolve around, or which is a large event of the story itself). In my opinion, this chapter is up there with Chapter 8 - Renascence, and Chapter 19 - The Beginning of the End (the one with all the times)

****

Reply to reviews: Thanks Kelly for that great review.

****

Queen Bodeica: Go to the Authors Note at the end of this chapter to find out why there's no peephole. But make sure you read the chapter first.

Thanks to everyone else who's reviewed and given the great reviews.

__________________

Chapter 23

Shock of a Lifetime

Slowly he started to feel the things around him again as he regained consciousness. His senses started to return to him. He could hear the sound of a large number of people nearby, and he could smell them too. His sense of touch came back with an itch on his forehead and he moved to scratch it, but something was keeping his arm back. It was then that he noticed that his arms were outstretched beside him, and that his back was along something hard and cold. He thought for a moment that he was lying down, but he knew that he was standing. He tried to move his arm again, but it was kept back again. He tried the other arm, but the same thing. He tried to move his legs, but they were held in place. He knew what had happened, but he didn't want to open his eyes to confirm it, but he knew he had to. Slowly, he opened his eyes, and he was met with the same darkness that he had been in for the majority of his life. He looked along his arm, and saw that it was bound to the wall with metal restraints. He looked to his legs, and saw the same thing there as well. Slowly, he took in his surroundings; it appeared to him that he was in a basement of some kind. Around him were supplies. Most of them seemed to be weapons of some kind. 

"Hrmph. Good idea chaining up a vampire with weapons," Spike muttered to himself. He thought back to what had happened, the ruins of Sunnydale, the barrier surrounding the town now, the riders coming through the barrier and surrounding him. All of that had led him here, chained up against a stone wall, in an extremely large basement, with no idea what was going on. He pulled against his restraints, hoping that his vampiric strength would be enough to break them, but he doubted it. It was obvious that the riders, who had captured him knew what they were doing, and he was pretty sure that they'd make sure their restraints would be able to hold a vampire. He heard footsteps nearby, and he looked in the direction that they were coming from. He saw that there was a doorway not too far to his left, and the footsteps seemed to be coming from outside the doorway. He saw a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes enter the room and look straight at him. He looked straight into her eyes and he saw that she was sizing him up and taking in his demeanour. Spike watched as the girl turned and hurried out of the room. A couple of moments later, he heard a voice outside, almost shouting,

"He's awake. The vampire's awake." It was obvious that it was from the girl that had just come into the room. 

About half a minute passed when Spike heard a number of footsteps coming towards him again, and he turned his head back to the doorway and saw a small group of women enter the room he was in. There was one that carried herself high and seemed to be the one in charge. She walked right up to him, and put her hand around the lower half of his face. Spike felt his head being turned to the left, and he resisted, but when he did, the grip the girl had around his jaw tightened and he could tell that she was extremely strong. He stopped resisting and his head was turned very roughly to the left, and then roughly to the right; the girl taking in his appearance. Spike watched as she let go of his jaw and stepped back. 

"Is B still here?," the girl asked another one who was standing behind her.

"I think so," the other girl replied. 

"Then go get her," the lead girl said. Spike watched as the girl walked out of the room. He turned back to the small group in front of him, and he took in the other people that were with the lead woman. He saw the blonde haired - blue eyed girl that had come in earlier, and he saw another woman with long auburn hair and haunting green eyes. He also saw a large man with black hair and the same haunting green eyes.

"Where am I?" Spike said to them for the first time. He was just met with silence as everyone in the room looked at him. He sized up the leading woman and he could tell that she was a fighter. He looked closely at the others, and he could tell that they were all fighters from the numerous scratches, bruises, gouges and lumps all over each of their bodies. It looked as if this group had just gotten out of a fight, but what Spike didn't know was that these people always looked like that these days. 

It seemed that they'd been waiting an hour before Spike heard footsteps coming their way again. He got the shock of a lifetime when he saw who came through it. The first person who came through was the girl that had left before, but following closely on her heels was no one other than Buffy; Giles right behind her. 

"What is it Faith? I've got to get back to my group. The First's closing in on our location and we've got to be ready to move," Buffy said looking straight at Faith. Spike remembered the name of Faith from somewhere, and it came back to him that she was the Rouge Slayer that had made it her job to screw Buffy's life up. He watched as the Rogue Slayer just pointed at him, and Buffy turned following Faith's gesture until she realised what she was looking at. With lightning speed, before Spike even knew what had happened, Buffy had stepped forward and delivered a hard backhand to Spike's right side, sending his head slamming back into the wall and to the left with sickening speed. By the time he had recovered, Buffy had a rather dangerous looking knife held at his throat. 

"Is it really him?" Buffy said while looking directly at Spike, obviously talking to the other Slayer. 

"I don't know, decided to leave that to you," Faith replied. Spike didn't know what they were talking about, but before he had the time to try and figure it out, Buffy had moved his duster to the side and hoisted up Spike's undershirt, showing his stomach. 

"If you want…" Spike started, but was cut off as he felt a sharp hot pain on his stomach. Buffy had sliced the knife across his stomach, making a cut that wasn't shallow, but wasn't deep enough to do any damage.

"Red blood. It's him," Buffy said out loud. Spike saw that Buffy stepped away from him and brought herself so she was beside Faith. He noticed then that she looked so tired and worn out, and it hit him that that look was in all of them. 

"Do you know what this means?" Spike heard the blonde girl that had first come into the room say. "The First needs the bloodline of Aurelius. This is their missing link."

"Which means Angelus will be coming down on this place with full force," Spike heard Buffy say.

"Oh shit," Faith swore. "Man, we just got this place set up. I don't want to have to move us… again." Spike didn't have a clue what was going on, but he knew that it was because of him. 

"I'll go and tell everyone to start packing their things, and get Clifford and Cassia ready to take down the barrier," the blonde haired girl said to Faith. It was obvious to Spike, that for some reason she answered to Faith instead of Buffy. Spike watched as the girl headed out of the room. 

"Skye, wait!" Buffy exclaimed. Spike turned and saw that the girl was coming back in the doorway. "I'll take him with me. Our group's already moving, it won't hurt to have him with us. This place is a fortress, and you can't just give it up that easily." 

"Buffy…" Giles started. 

"No, Giles, it's the best thing to do. We're moving out already. And maybe Willow can mask his presence," Buffy replied to him. Spike didn't have a clue what had happened over the last year, but obviously it was huge and had changed a lot of what was going on around the place. 

"What's going on?" Spike asked, but his words only fell on deaf ears. He was worried about the cut along his stomach, it was bleeding a fair bit and he was losing a lot of blood and he would need some before long. It was the first time since the whole incident when he actually thought about blood and the hunger that had grown inside him. 

"How are we going to get him across the city?" Giles asked Buffy. Spike watched as Buffy stopped and thought about it. 

"I'll give you three of my people," Faith said. "That ought to be enough." 

"What? Faith, no," Buffy replied. It was obvious to Spike that they were in a hot debate and that there were things going on here that he didn't have a clue about. 

"Listen B. You need to keep him alive and out of The First's hands. You, Giles and the two potentials you brought with you can't do that. With my people, you'll have some fighting chance if anything happens," Faith started. Spike just watched the two Slayers stare off at each other, while the other people in the room started moving about. There was a long silence before anything was said. 

"Okay," Buffy replied. "We'll bring your people back on our way out." Spike watched as everyone agreed and started to head out of the room. 

"Does anyone want to fill me in?" Spike yelled after them, but no one took any notice. "And some blood would be nice!" 

What seemed like an age, but was only really ten minutes later, Buffy, Giles, Faith and five other people returned to the room where Spike was being held. To his surprise, they brought a packet of blood with them. Spike watched as one of the people with them the restraints on Spike's right arm and put the packet of blood in his hand. Spike looked to the woman, who had stepped back. It clicked in his head that they were only letting him feed, and not letting him go. He put the packet of blood to his mouth and ripped it open with his teeth. 

Moments later, when the blood was all gone, Spike looked to everyone who was in the room. 

"Take weapons. You might need them," Faith said to Buffy. 

"We can't. We're already taking some of your people," Buffy replied. 

"Don't worry about it, we've got more than enough. We raided what's left of Wolfram and Hart just the other week, took all their weapons and supplies," Faith said to Buffy. Spike watched as Buffy just looked at Faith, and then moved over to a chest that was in the basement. He looked as she pulled out one of the weird weapons that shot crossbow bolts, and that the riders attacked him with. Spike watched as Buffy pulled a piece of metal that was sticking out of the side of the weapon back and there was a loud click. "They're already fully loaded," Faith said. Buffy turned to the others that had entered the room. 

"Load up," she said to all of them. Spike watched as Buffy walked up to him and undid his restraints. "Try anything and you're dust," she said to him harshly before shoving him out the door. 

Twenty minutes later, Spike was standing in a large open room, with Buffy and her small group of followers standing around her. Spike looked around at everyone, they were all armed to the teeth. Spike had seen all five people accompanying Giles and Buffy strap knives to themselves under their clothes. They all carried one of the strange arrow shooting weapons, and three of them had swords strapped to their backs. They were all just standing around, waiting for something. While they had escorted Spike to where they were now, he saw a multitude of things that he'd never expected. The building he was in was huge and it was obviously filled with people. He turned as he heard footsteps hurrying in their direction. He turned to see short blonde girl coming up to them. 

"Buffy, the barrier's down," the girl said to Buffy. 

"Thanks Cass. I appreciate it," Buffy replied to her. 

"No problem," the girl replied. "Just make sure you get back safely." Spike watched as the girl looked at them. He was brought out of his wonderings as something was pushed into his back. 

"Move," he heard someone command from behind him. Spike looked towards where he was getting prodded towards and he saw that Buffy and the others were already moving towards two large double doors that obviously led outside. He watched as Buffy pushed the doors open, and he saw a grey sky in front of him. He followed the others outside, and he got another shock as he looked at the sight before him. They were on the top of a hill, and in front of them lay a city in ruins. There was various fires that he could see, and buildings in rubble. 

"What is this place?" Spike asked. He saw the girl beside him just look at him weirdly. 

"You don't know this place?" she asked him. Spike looked to her and he knew that she could tell that he honestly didn't know where he was. "This is LA," she answered after a moment. 

"Let's go, we don't have many hours of sunlight left," Buffy said. As one, the people around him started to move, and Spike did the only thing he could; followed along. He noticed that after a block or so of walking, that the people around him weren't even paying any attention to him. He had expected them all to be on alert for him to try something, but he noticed that they were all busy scanning the spaces around them, and that their weapons were pointing outwards to the streets around them, instead of inwards at him. 

Ever since the events of the previous day, Xander had been feeling different. He had felt like something had opened up inside him, something that was there and dormant for a long time. He had been thinking about it a lot when he could, so much that he didn't get any sleep that night, although, he thought, who could blame him. They had just been attacked by vampires, and a friend had just turned up out of no where after being gone for years, bringing all these people with him. There were vampires on the loose that could kick both Buffy and Faith's asses. The Hellmouth was open, and he was still a bit shook up about seeing the ghosts of Principal Flutie and Snyder about a week ago. _(Reference - War Cries - Chapter 6 - Old Ghosts, New Problems (Part 1))_. As he thought about it more, he realised that the feelings he had been having had been around longer than one day. He couldn't pinpoint when it had started, but he knew that it had been around a long time. And now, as he walked to the Summers' living room to hear what Oz and his group had to say about themselves, he had the distinct feeling that something life changing was going to happen. He didn't have a clue what it was going to be, but he knew that something huge was going to happen. 

It was hard being in this place. Ever since they had arrived in the town, things had been barraging her senses left, right and centre. She knew that Oz knew these people, and that he said that they were good, but Nicola had serious doubts about that. There was something dark about the brunette girl that Oz told them was the other Slayer; Faith. There was something about her that was unstable. And the red haired witch, Willow. Nicola didn't know where to begin about her. There was a huge darkness about her, and she was also unstable and Nicola knew that something was about to happen with her; she was about to lose control, and Nicola knew that that couldn't be a good thing. A normal witch losing control was bad enough, but Nicola had sensed the power that was radiating off of the girl, and she knew that the results could be disastrous. She couldn't believe that the Slayer was harbouring this witch; they'd heard of this situation time and time again. The witch abused magick and didn't use it properly, and the rush of power ended up overtaking them until they needed more and more and they'd do anything to keep it up. These were junkies. It was that easy, they were magick junkies, and Nicola knew that Willow was one of them. She was pent up, just waiting to explode, and from the darkness inside the girl that Nicola had sensed, she knew that putting that together with a magickal outburst would be bad. 

As they were sitting around the lounge room, discussing what was going on, trying to explain to Buffy that Syophers were called Syophers, not Seeophers, Nicola actually felt a bit sorry for Willow. She could tell that Willow was an intelligent girl, and that essentially she was good. From what she could remember Oz saying about her, she was apparently a remarkable person, but now looking at it, Nicola wasn't sure whether Oz was being unbiased or not. Everyone in their group knew that this girl was the love of Oz's life, or so he made it out to be, and Nicola knew Oz, and she knew that he wouldn't fall for someone who wasn't worthy of him, and he had pretty high standards. She felt pity that someone who could have been great in life had to get affected by magick like this. But, Nicola's thoughts went spinning away from Willow in an instant, as a very powerful force unveiled itself to her. Nicola could sense it, a being of great power was nearby.

"Something's coming," she exclaimed to the rest of the group. 

"What's coming Nicola?" she heard Brett ask. 

"I don't know, but it's powerful, whatever it is," she replied. She closed her eyes and opened her mind and senses up. It was closer than she had anticipated. Whatever it was, it was just outside, standing on the road. She sensed that there was a large group of people with it, all with their own distinct signatures. 

"Is it dangerous?" she heard Oz ask her. She sensed that some of these people were different than normal people somehow, she didn't have time to explore their energy signatures enough. She knew that this being, whatever it was had hidden itself from all of their senses, and that Nicola could only sense it now because it wished it so. She sensed three energy signatures moving towards the house.

"No, but it's extremely powerful, and it's right outside," she replied. She opened her eyes as she heard a knock on the front door. She watched as Buffy moved over to the door and opened it up, and she saw the shock on her face. 

_"We came to Sunnydale to enter into this game, and now we've got exactly what we've bargained for,"_ Nicola thought as Willow moved towards the door.

Xander sat and he listened to everyone discussing the recent events. The feeling inside him that something was going to happen wasn't going away. It was screaming at him and his sense of urgency was just becoming larger and larger. He tried to _get with it_ as one of the girls that had come with Oz explained that there was something coming, but he couldn't. Everything seemed like it was a dream; or that he was only looking in on everything as his body went about living his life. He heard the knock on the door, and he turned and saw Buffy open the door and just stare out it, dumbfounded. He was just about to get up and go and look when Willow walked past him, and he watched as the same look came across her face, more so than Buffy's. The feeling that was screaming at him from his insides was more powerful than ever now, and in just one instant, he felt alright again. He felt like himself. The dreamlike state he had been in disappeared, and Xander knew that he had to get up and sort out whatever was going on. He got up off the couch and went over to the doorway. That's when he got what was probably one of the biggest shocks of his lifetime. Xander saw people standing there. He looked to each one of them, who he thought he'd never see again. 

" It's a trick, it's a trick," he heard Willow rasp, barely able to speak. It took a second or so before recognition came over him as he looked at the first person. It was Cordelia, but she had changed her appearance. Her hair was now longer, and there was something about her which he couldn't place. Beside her, stood a man who had changed so much, Xander didn't recognise him at first. His clean shaven and sharp British looks had gone, now replaced with a down and dirty look which suggested he'd seen too much. Behind them, he saw a person who he recognised, but it didn't register in his brain. It didn't make any sense at all. This person shouldn't be standing there with Wesley and Cordelia, but yet, she was. Finally, recognition swept through his brain and words came out of his mouth without him knowing so, or even hearing himself say it. 

"Oh my god… Tara."

________________________

****

Authors Note: Can you say Cliff hanger or what! 

And, so, we've met Future Buffy and Future Faith. Things there will be explained, and all the crypticism (or whatever it's called) will be put in it's place in about 5-10 chapters or so. If you think that something lame along the lines of "Spike's gonna find out what happened in the future and then somehow get back to the present time and fix it all up" is gonna happen, then don't, because you're wrong. I wouldn't make the ending of this book that lame.

****

Queen Bodeica: There's no peephole in the door, because I've been planning this situation in my head since I Started _Post Grave_, and a peephole would just ruin the whole thing. Secondly, there's no peephole because I live in Australia, and I've never seen a peephole before in my life except on TV, and the thought never occurred to me.

Next chapter should be coming really soon. 

Also, something amusing that I just noticed, that was purely by accident. Look at the names of the chapters and how they contradict each other. _Chapter 18 - It Starts _and _Chapter 19 - The Beginning of the End_. And then look at _Chapter 20 -Too Late _and _Chapter 21 - Perfect Timing_. Kinda cool aint it. 

And next

****

Chapter 24 - Story Time

_________________-

Also, a question to the readers… Do you think I've got what it takes to write a novel. Currently, I'm only 17, but I've been thinking about it for a long time, and after I finish University (College), I would, at some point in time, like to write a novel and try to get it published. I was thinking something along the lines of a thief thing (like Ocean's Eleven, Entrapment, The Italian Job, etc.) where everything's not clear and after you've finished it, you're still left thinking. Or, something along the lines of Buffy (ie, vampires, witches etc). More along the lines of a coven of witches gets massacred by vampires, and the only survivor of the coven sets out to get revenge against the vampires.

Well, anyway. Do youse think I've got what it takes to be able to write a book and get it published?

Aussie.


	25. Chapter 24 Story Time

****

Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. This basically slows the story right down as things are explained, by Cordelia, once again. The purpose of this chapter is to let everyone in Sunnydale in on what's going on, and let everyone reading this story into what's going on if it's not too clear yet (if what I want to be clear isn't too clear).

There's a bit at the end that's leading the way for something huge.

In my opinion, this chapter aint too good cause I tried to rush it and get it over and done with, but don't take that into consideration. 

_______________ 

Chapter 24

Story Time

She didn't know what was going on. These virtual strangers had shown up with someone who Willow had known she'd lost. The strange thing was though, apart from this girl, was that she did recognise Willow, but not in the way that Willow would have thought so. She had been standing by the door, and she saw a look of recognition cross the girl's face before Cordelia had said that they'd explain everything once they got inside. Willow had looked at the person seeming to be Tara, expecting something to be said to her, but the girl didn't say anything to her, just followed Cordelia inside and stuck to her like glue. It didn't escape Willow that she wasn't freaking out about a girl that looked exactly like Tara being in their presence, but that she was freaking out about the fact that the girl was basically ignoring her. No one that was in the house had said anything yet, and Willow knew that along with herself, Giles, Buffy, Xander and Dawn were in shock. Willow watched as the people who had been standing outside, near the cars, came into the house and then the lounge room, filling it to capacity. Willow watched as Cordelia and the girl who looked like Tara walked into the lounge room and Giles and Dawn got up and gave them their spots on the couch. 

"Tara is that really you?" Willow asked from her position next to the doorway, not having moved since the whole thing started. Willow watched as the girl turned in her direction and looked at her, and then looked away again. Willow also noticed that Cordelia looked her way, and invited her to come closer. She willed herself forward, still obviously in shock. 

"We'll explain everything once everyone gets settled," Cordelia said while looking at Willow, and then to Giles, and Buffy. Willow looked to Wesley as he stood behind Cordelia and Tara and watched as he surveyed the room, and that his eyes widened at seeing Faith present. 

"I think explanations are in order from all sides," Giles said while taking off his glasses and a cloth out of his pocket. "But we'll let you go first." He added while looking at Cordelia. 

"Can we get to the more urgent matters first," Willow heard from behind her. She turned around to see a rather spry girl with long brown hair standing behind her, whom she recognised as Fred from the time she had visited LA to give Angel the news about Buffy's death. Willow saw two people come through the doorway, one a male teenager, and another a female teenager, carrying someone between them. Willow could tell that he was hurt, and that he was hurt pretty badly. The two people lay him down on the floor. 

"We were hoping that Willow could perform a healing spell on him," Wesley said. Willow just turned to him, wide eyed.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Wesley, but Willow's having some.. Uh, difficulties at the moment," Giles said to him, sticking up for him. 

"I can do it," a voice popped up. Everyone turned to look at who had said it, and Willow realised that it was Cassia. "I'm not as powerful as Willow, but I can do it," she said. Willow just gave her a little smile before darting her gaze to the girl who looked like Tara. Everyone made room around the unconscious body as Cassia moved up to it and knelt down beside him. 

"What happened to him," one of the potentials that were gathered near Faith asked. 

"We had a run in with a Syopher. Gunn got hurt," Cordelia replied _(Reference to Chapter 15 - Showdown)_. It didn't escape Willow that the attention of everyone from Oz's group was directed at Cordelia as soon as she had said the word Syopher. "But we'll get to that." Cordelia added. Willow turned back to Cassia, and watched as she extended her hands out over the wound that was in the man's shoulder. 

"He's been in and out of consciousness the whole way here, he's lost a lot of blood," Fred said. A light yellow glow emanated out of Cassia's hands and Willow realised that Cassia was doing the exact same thing that she had done to Michaela. After about half a minute, Cassia opened her eyes and stood up, looking around at everyone. 

"His wounds should heal very quickly now," she said. "He should be fine." 

"Thankyou." Fred started while looking at Cassia. 

"Cassia," Cassia said to her. 

"Cassia," Fred added. Willow turned back to the group, who was now sitting around on the lounge chairs or standing up. The lounge room was filled with people now, and a thought suddenly struck Willow. Someone, probably her, was going to have to sit down with Cassia and explain to her who all these people were, well, all the people Willow knew anyway, because Cassia didn't know anyone here. She looked to Tara again, and Willow's brain both slowed down and quickened it's pace at once. One part of her was made calm, while another part of her tried to scramble for reasons why Tara was acting the way she was. So far, Willow's only logical reason was the theory that everyone had a double in the world; someone who looks almost exactly like them, and this was that person of Tara's. It wasn't very likely, but it was the only thing Willow could come up with at the moment. 

"Explanations would be good now," Willow just spurted out, not realising she had said anything until everyone was looking at her. Willow saw Cordelia just nod her head. 

"I'd recommend that everyone gets comfortable, because this may take a while," Cordelia said out loud. Willow saw that no one moved and she knew that Cordelia took that as her cue to start. There was a long pause as Willow saw that Cordelia was trying to find a place to start. 

"It's obvious that some of you in this room know who this is," she said while placing her hand on Tara's shoulder. "That's a good thing, because, we don't." Cordelia said. "But I'll get to that in a little bit. I'm going to explain this so that everyone in this room who doesn't know me, or many of the people here, will understand what's going on," she said. Willow could now feel an electricity in the air, and she knew that what Cordelia was going to say was going to finally bring answers. 

"For a couple of years, I was a seer for the Powers that Be. I received visions of people in distress and who needed help. I was aligned with a vampire called Angel, who has a soul, and who is trying to redeem himself. I was his link to the Powers that Be. For a couple of years, we _helped the helpless_, as I liked to say. But then, something happened. I ascended to a higher plane of existence. I became a higher being - a being between dimensions. I was allowed to look on, onto this plane to see what was happening," Cordelia started. She left a pause to make sure that this was sinking into everyone. "But, I came back. I am still a higher being.," Cordelia said. She looked around the room, seeing everyone take it in. "My purpose is to act as a guide to everyone in this room... and people who haven't entered this town yet - people who haven't entered this fight yet. I am here to guide you all into the final battles of the apocalypse. Now, I know you that live here in Sunnydale are thinking something along the lines of, _"Oh, another one,". _But I am not talking about the things you have faced before. This is the apocalypse. This is world wide, the pieces and players are scattered all over the world, and the final battle will be the equivalent of a World War, but for the metaphysical world. Already, plans set out by the other side are well under way." she paused, making sure that this sunk in to everyone and that the significance of it reached everyone. She saw that it had reached most people. "All of you here are major players in this whole series of events. And I come here to you now to explain. I also came back this plane of existence with another purpose, but I do not know much about it. My purpose was to protect this girl here," Cordelia said while looking to Anita, who was sitting beside her. "The night I returned, I was told that this girl would play a major part of the apocalypse, for either side, and that this girl was once dead, but she was brought back to life. Her body was reconstructed, and her soul was replanted into her body, but unfortunately, her memory was totally erased." Cordelia said, and she noticed something pass over many members of the Scooby Gang. "However, her soul contains her memories, and they will return over time. The only thing we know that she remembers is some spell casting, and Willow here," Cordelia said, and she watched a large smile come across Willow's face. She looked to Anita, who looked at Willow and then looked down to the ground. "We were very fortunate, as Fred, Gunn, Wesley and Connor here rescued Anita here in time before Angelus could get to her," Cordelia said. She was just about to continue before someone interrupted her. 

"Wait! Angelus?" Buffy exclaimed. "What do you mean Angelus?!" 

"Buffy. Angel lost his soul," Wesley said to her. 

"What!?" Buffy exclaimed. Cordelia caught onto what was happening and quickly jumped in to explain. 

"Angel got his soul ripped out by a magician working for The First Evil," Cordelia said. She saw that most people were looking at her with confused looks, and she resigned herself to start explaining. "The First Evil is the manifestation of the evil that is inside every living being. It is it's personification. It is not a living entity, but it is at the same time. It is very hard to explain, but basically it is taking steps to start this apocalypse. It is evil's version of the Powers that Be. It is evil's higher power. It can take the guise of dead people, but It is essentially incorporeal, meaning that it can not manipulate physical things," Cordelia said. 

"The ghosts!" Xander said. "We've seen ghosts a lot recently," Xander said. 

"That would most likely be The First," Cordelia said. There was a pause as Cordelia saw that everyone was taking this in, but she also noticed that Oz and the people standing around with him looked rather bored. She'd have to find out things about that later on, but for now, she decided that she should continue. "Now, where was I. oh, right. The First's main weapon is manipulation. It manipulates people into doing what it want's them to do. It takes the form of dead people, and it is them, right down to the very core. It knows everything about you, and about these people, and it will prey on that and your relationship with that person. The best way of showing how it manipulates people is to look at Faith here," Cordelia said while directing her hand towards Faith. "The First made Faith believe that the Watchers' Council wanted to kill her in order to get a Slayer that obeys it's orders, and The First set Faith against the Watchers Council, to take it down. The Council didn't actually want Faith dead, but Faith here thought so, and she broke out of jail and set out against the Council. The First was probably making her believe she was doing the right thing by going against them, am I right Faith?" Cordelia said. Faith just sat there, stunned. 

"So you mean, all that was just this, Evil thing, manipulating me?" Faith asked. 

"Yes," Cordelia replied. "What did the ghosts that came to you tell you, Faith?" Cordelia asked. 

"They told me that the Council was corrupt, and that I could take them down and make a better Council, one that treated us Slayers better," Faith replied. "Man, I got played!" She exclaimed. "I hate it when that happens." Faith continued, muttering about something, but Cordelia decided that she needed to keep going. 

"From where I left off." Cordelia said, getting everyone's attention back on her. "Angelus is The First's main weapon, at this point in time. The First is getting Angelus to gather vampires to him, to create an army of vampires," Cordelia said. "And so far, it's succeeding. He has at least two hundred and fifty under his rule," Cordelia explained. 

"That's one of the reasons we came here. We need help with the number of vampires in Los Angeles," Wesley said. 

"We kind of have our own problems," Buffy and Xander said in unison. 

"Wesley," Cordelia said, showing her palm to him, hoping that he got the message not to bring it up now. "All over the world, assets of the Watchers Council have been attacked, and the main headquarters was taken out, which I believe, Faith, Giles and Willow were there for," Cordelia said. 

"How did you know that?" Giles asked. 

"I'm a higher being. I can use remote viewing," Cordelia replied. "Now, this is the tricky bit. The First's main weapon is manipulation, but most of the time, we can't discern the purpose, or reason for The First's manipulation. It manipulated Faith to attack the Headquarters of the Watchers Council, but then took out the main headquarters itself. there may be another reason for manipulating Faith the way it did. The First has an unlimited timeframe, so it's actions usually have other purposes," Cordelia said. Before anyone could say anything, Cordelia continued. "The most deadly of anything under The First's command are Syophers. Not much is known about them, but they are deadly. Their presence invokes a feeling of terror in everything around them, they are deadly in combat, and they are extremely hard to harm. They take the guise of large, dark, hooded figures, but they can take the form of dead people as well, but not for long. They are extremely powerful and if you see one, the best thing you can do is to run," Cordelia said. She saw realisation sweep through the Scooby Gang. "Now, The First's plans are already well under way. The army of vampires is already forming in Los Angeles, and an event took place just the other day which signifies something of great importance, although I don't know what. the barriers between dimensions were brought down, for only a second or so. This was performed as some of the witches under The First's control set up the ritual, and The First managed to steal some of my essence and combine it with that of a Syopher, under the right conditions and with the right ritual. This sent off a shock wave of magickal energy all over the globe, which greatly affected magick users and supernatural beings, which I'm sure most of you saw the effects of," Cordelia said, getting nods from a lot of people. "What The First could have done in those few seconds while the dimensional walls were down is anyone's guess, but it can't be good." Cordelia started, but someone spoke up. 

"To open the Hellmouth," Buffy said. "The ritual opened the Hellmouth."

"A ritual of that significance and power wouldn't be used to open the Hellmouth," Cordelia said. "A much simpler ritual could be used for that. And the ritual took down the walls between dimensions, where the Hellmouth is just a weak point in those walls."

"And it wouldn't make sense to open the Hellmouth and then put a barrier across it," Willow added. Cordelia was confused at this and looked to Willow. "There's a barrier across it, preventing anything from coming out," Willow said. There was a long pause in the room, as no one said anything and most of the people considered this. "Maybe, opening the Hellmouth was only a side effect of the ritual," Willow said. "And the barrier is this thing's way of stopping the Hellmouth from being open," Willow said. 

"Or a way of controlling what actually comes out of it," Cordelia said. She watched as the fact flew through Willow's brain and she considered the facts. 

"What about the _Turokhan_. Do you know anything about those? Buffy and Faith had a rather nasty encounter with them," Giles asked. 

"The _Turokhan _are here already?" Cordelia asked. "Things are going faster than I thought.. The _Turokhan_ are going to be the main foot soldiers of The First's army, along with the vampires that Angelus recruits," Cordelia explained. "They are very old and powerful vampires, most of them are savage. They are deadly, but they can be dealt with," Cordelia said. 

"Dealt with? Dealt with!? They kicked both my and Buffy's asses!" Faith exclaimed. "How are we meant to fight against them?" Cordelia just looked at Faith, before starting to explain everything. 

"All around the world, Potential Slayers are coming to Sunnydale. They are the people who may become Slayers if you, you know." Cordelia said to Faith. "There aren't many left, The First has already killed a lot of them off, but they will be able to aid you. Also, around the world, people fighting against The First's efforts will help you out. All it will take to defeat the _Turokhan_ is extremely disciplined training and pushing yourselves to your absolute limits. They die the same way as any other vampire, although stakes are a bit hard to kill them with as you will have to use extreme force," Cordelia said. There was a long silence all over the room as everyone took in everything Cordelia had said. 

"Like it or not, all of us here are the foundations of the resistance towards The First's efforts. Here, we have everything we need - warriors, magick users, and knowledge. We are all key players in the events that are going to unfold, and unless we succeed, the human race will pay the price for it, because unlike all apocalypse before, this one doesn't result in the end of the world - just a demon paradise on earth, where humans are few and demons are many. We can not go back to LA, that is not where we are needed," Cordelia said to everyone, but spoke mostly to Angel's group. "If we were to return, we would just be wasting time and our lives. If everyone here in this room was to go to LA, we would not succeed in stopping the vampire army, as we are all ill prepared, we would only slow down the increase in numbers. We must gather numbers to our side before we are to worry about the threat from LA, but don't worry, others will come. There are already another five potential slayers that I can sense, right here in Sunnydale, but they haven't made their way here yet," Cordelia said.

Five minutes later, after Cordelia had finished explaining things to everyone and answering all the questions that anyone had, Oz decided that it was his turn to start to explain things. He stood up from his seat next to Michaela and looked around at everyone. 

"To everyone who doesn't know me, I'm called Oz," he said. "And I'm a werewolf," he added. 

__

"Man, this sounds too much like werewolves anonymous," he thought, referring to alcoholics anonymous, but for werewolves. 

"I used to hang with Buffy and Willow and everyone here in Sunnydale, but, I left, because. I couldn't control the wolf inside me," Oz said, carefully skirting around the issue. "Not too long after I left, I met up with Daniel here, another werewolf," Oz said, and Daniel just raised his hand, showing who he was. "And we learnt to control our change. Not too long after, we met up with Michaela, Naomi, Brett, Nicola and Matt," Oz said, referring to someone who wasn't with them at the moment. "They all were in a group, already fighting against The First's efforts and didn't oppose some extra help," Oz explained. One night though, a witch, being manipulated by The First, killed Matt. Michaela and Nicola managed to put her to sleep, and we. _questioned _her, and we found out about The First and that it was starting to bring about the apocalypse. The short version of it is that for two years now, I have been fighting against the efforts of The First with the people with me here, travelling around the country. We went to LA, to team up with Angel's crew - but we couldn't find them. We went to the Hyperion Hotel, after a fight had taken place there, and Nicola, who is cool and good psychic, sensed that someone was hurt, and we looked in all the surrounding hospitals for you guys, but we couldn't find you," Oz said. 

"We were in a medical clinic," Connor said. 

"Oh, well, that explains it," Oz replied. There was a long pause as everyone looked to Oz. "We're here to help, however we can," Oz said.

Two hours later, all the discussion had subsided, everyone's questions that were able to be answered, answered. Stories were traded and events of what had happened to each of the groups had been told. Almost everyone had left the room to go out into the town, having agreed that it was safe by daylight, and that mostly everyone who had moved into the Summers' home over the last couple of days needed food and groceries. The only people left in the Summers' lounge room were Willow, Cordelia and Tara. 

"Cordelia, can I see you for a minute," Buffy called out from the base of the stairs. Cordelia turned and looked to Buffy, and then got up and went to her. 

"What is it?" Cordelia asked. 

"It's nothing. I just think that they need some time alone," Buffy said in a soft voice to Cordelia, making sure Willow or Tara couldn't hear. Cordelia turned back to look at Willow and Tara, and she saw that Willow had gotten up off her seat and was now sitting across from Tara. Cordelia saw the weird way that Willow was looking at Anita, or Tara, as she had to correct herself, now knowing the real name for the girl and not having to use their made up name. She turned back to Buffy, about to say something, but Buffy beat her to it. "This is important, for both of them, even if Tara can't remember or doesn't know why," Buffy said. Cordelia turned back to the pair to see that Tara was looking down at the ground and Willow had ducked her head down, trying to catch Tara's eye. 

"What? Is there something going on between those two?. Was there something going on between those two?" Cordelia asked as she looked at Willow. The thought had just come across her mind as she watched the way that Willow looked at Tara. 

"Yeah," Buffy replied. 

"Really?" Cordelia replied, surprise. "Since when was Willow gay?"

"Since the time she met Tara," Buffy replied. Cordelia could feel her eyebrows raise as Buffy said that. "That's the real reason Oz left, for the second time," Buffy added. 

"What? You mean, Willow gave up Oz for Tara? She and Oz were pretty close," Cordelia said. 

"Yeah. Her and Tara were closer," Buffy replied. 

"Really?" Cordelia replied, surprised. There was a slight pause as Cordelia turned and looked at Willow, and Tara, in a new light. 

"You know, Cordelia. You're still the same. Even though you're a higher being and all wise and knowledgable, you're still Cordelia," Buffy said before starting to walk into the kitchen, Cordelia getting the hint and following. 

As Cordelia got up and left, Willow looked across to Tara. She saw the blonde girl looking at her, but saw her eyes divert to the ground as soon as Willow made eye contact. She decided to get up and move a bit closer to Tara, and she took the seat opposite her, so they were facing each other. Willow saw Tara look up for a brief second at her, and then down at the ground again. She wondered if what Cordelia had said was true, that this was really her Tara sitting in front of her, just with a bit of memory loss, that's all. Willow ducked her head down, trying to catch Tara's eye and let her know that it was alright. She thought that it must be awfully disorientating, being brought back from the dead then having no memory, and then being in a room full of people that she couldn't remember, talking about the end of the world. 

"Hey," Willow said, it coming out a bit softer than she intended. "Hey, it's okay," she said to Tara again. She watched as Tara looked up at her, and then glanced down at the ground again, but then looked at her again. "How's it going?" Willow asked, not sure of what else to say. "How do you feel about all this?" There was a long pause as Tara looked at Willow, and then down at her hands, which were threading between each other. 

"Confused. Like I don't know what's going on, but that I should know, you know," Tara answered slowly. There was another long pause as Willow saw that Tara wanted to continue. "It feels like everything around me is going so fast, and I can't keep up," Tara said. 

"It's okay," Willow said. "I can help you," she added. "Anything you need to be brought up to speed on, just ask me. I can tell you about all these people and who they are," Willow said. Tara just nodded at her response as she looked at her hands. "I can tell you about you, who you were, before." Willow said, but didn't finish the sentence. 

"Before I died, apparently, which I don't even remember," Tara said, finishing the sentence for her. Willow just reached over and squeezed her hand in an act of assurance. There was a long silence between them as Willow thought about what to say to Tara. 

"What do you remember? What do you remember, about me?" Willow asked. She just had to know what Tara remembered, so then she knew her limits and what she had to work with. There was a very long, long silence from Tara, as she looked at her hands and threaded them together more. After a while, she finally spoke. 

"The first thing I remembered was your name. And then, I remembered you, and then magick, and then us. together," Tara said. "And that's it. That's everything I remember." Willow just squeezed Tara's hand again. 

"It's okay. I'll help you figure things out," Willow said to her, hoping that she'd get her memory back, but at the same time, hoping that she wouldn't. 

He stood in the small room which had become his over the last couple of weeks. He knew that they needed to move to a new location soon, or get another place for them. Vampires were coming to the city, to his city, from all over the world to join the ranks of his army that was being formed. With it, he was going to move out into the world and make it his. The world would belong to their kind again, where they didn't have to worry about the Watchers Council, or the Slayers. Beside him stood his sire, and on the other side of him, stood his childe; Darla and Druscilla. 

"So, about your offer. Who says I should take it?" Angelus asked them both. 

"The voices in the earth," Druscilla replied to Angelus's question.

"Take it, or leave it Angelus. It's up to you. But I know that you'd be better off with their help, now don't you," Darla said. Angelus considered what they had said to him just moments earlier, before he made his decision. 

"Yes, the resources of Wolfram and Hart would be very good for our cause. But those lawyers always have their own agenda. But, for now, I'm in," Angelus said to them. 

"Oh goodie," Druscilla said while clapping her hands together. "Now our army's going to be a real army."

Ten minutes later, Angelus was standing in the same room, minus Darla and Druscilla. He was thinking of the proposal Wolfram and Hart had made to him and his army, and he had just the idea how to use their proposal against them. Even though they were evil, and he was evil now too, he still didn't like them. They only served themselves, no one else; they didn't serve him. He turned around to see an image of Buffy Summers standing in front of him. 

"Angelus. I've got something I need you to do," The First said to him. Angelus just stepped closer, acknowledging The First's presence. "I need you to take out your most disciplined vampires into the city, and I need you to begin stockpiling blood," The First said to him. "Go as soon as it is dark. But." The First said, pausing on 'but' to emphasise the importance of whatever it was going to say. "I need you to do it in a way that will not alert _anyone_ to the large numbers of vampires in this city." There was a long pause as Angelus looked at the image of Buffy Summers. 

"Done."

_________________

Okay, so there's more people in Sunnydale now, and they're not going back to LA, as of yet. Hrrm.. the drama's going to heat up (which a certain big bad bringing about the end of the world, may or may not choose to exploit), and, we're going to learn a lot about the characters that we don't know (Oz's group), soon, about who they are, their backgrounds, their history fighting The First. We MAY also learn a bit about some of the potentials, but I don't see any point in knowing anything about potentials that aren't important to the story line (give ya a hint on that one), and that are just potentials.

Don't worry though, things are going to _really_ heat up real soon.   


****

Next Chapter - Chapter 25 - Set in Motion


	26. Chapter 25 Set in Motion

****

Author's Note: Here's the next chapter. Sorry about the wait. The next one should be up already or should be coming really soon. Things are heating up, again. And as for those who are worrying about Faith getting into her role, don't worry. It's coming really soon. 

Chapter 25

Set In Motion

**Domestic Terminal - Airport - New York City - 11:00 PM**

They had landed in America four hours ago, and were now in the domestic terminal, awaiting their connecting flight from New York to Los Angeles, where they would make a brief stop over before continuing on to LA. Amanda hated wasting time like this, waiting for a plane trip. They only had a limited amount of time to accomplish their task, and every hour that they wasted made it harder and harder to reach their deadline. She thought about what they had set out to achieve, and she had her doubts about whether there was enough time left to do it. If there wasn't, they'd just be wasting lives, but if there was, they could ultimately change the balance of things on the face of the earth; or at least for the next generation of people. She looked around at the other people waiting at the same terminal as they were, and she saw the other five members of her group. Two of them, Michael and Jonathan, were splayed on top of their bags on the floor, trying to sleep as it had been a long flight from London. She saw Sandra, Derrick and Carmen sitting in the seats, holding plastic cups of coffee and they looked as tired as Amanda thought she looked. She looked down to her watch and saw that there was still another hour left until they'd be able to board the plane; which wasn't even at the terminal yet. Amanda slouched down in the seat and rested her head against the top of it and closed her eyes. 

__

Amanda was looking on at a circle of figures gathered around a fire in the middle of the forest in the middle of the night. She could hear soft whispers coming to her ears from the congregation, but she couldn't make out a word of it. Suddenly, the fire seemed to explode, and it burned with a new ferocity and rage that couldn't be natural. She and her crew approached the group of figures standing around the fire. They felt perfectly at home, and they knew that they were safe. Two people walked up to Amanda and her group from in the centre of the circle and presented them with a necklace with a small medallion attached. It was ovular in shape, and it had a green emerald at it's centre, circled by a golden woven pattern. Amanda looked at it, and then looked to Samantha. 

"Nothing will be able to sense your presence once you use these. But, only put them on when the end has started, never before then," Samantha said. "And only put them around your neck." Amanda put her hand out and Samantha put one of the medallions into it. "You will know the right time," Samantha said again. Amanda just looked at Samantha and then down at her hand and the charm that was in it. She looked up at Samantha again, but she didn't see Samantha. She saw a young girl with dark hair and eyes standing before her. Before Amanda knew what was going on, a knife was coming straight towards her heart, and the knife was in the hand of the girl that was before her. The knife hit her chest hard, shocking her and jolting her as the blade entered through the gap between ribs. 

Amanda jumped to her feet and knocked the person who was standing in front of her off theirs. She looked around to see bright fluorescent lights and people walking and talking about her. She looked down to her chest to see that there was no knife sticking out of it, and that there weren't any injuries on her. 

"It was only a dream," she muttered. She looked down to the ground to see who she had knocked over, and she saw that it was Jonathan. He was fairly tall and lanky, and was much stronger than he looked. He had the same green eyes that they all did, but he had dark, dark brown hair. He was originally from Thailand, but his family had moved to Australia when he was three, and then to England when he was eighteen, so he had a very strange accent compared to the rest of them. Amanda extended her hand and helped him up to his feet. 

"Geez, a little edgy are we? I was just trying to wake you," he said.

"Sorry. Bad dream, that's all… what's wrong?" Amanda said to him. Jonathan just looked at her, but then figured out that she wanted to know why he was trying to wake her. 

"It's the last call for our flight," Jonathan replied.

"Oh," was all that Amanda said in reply. She looked around and saw that the rest of her team was assembled right outside the gate, all ready to board the plane. Amanda turned around and picked up her bag and walked over to the group. "It's time. Put on your necklaces," Amanda said to the group. 

"Are you sure that's wise? We were told not to use them until the end," Sandra commented. Amanda looked at her and thought about what she said. She valued the opinions of all of these people, that's why they were all on her team. 

"Yes, I'm sure," she said after a moment's consideration. "We're going to Sunnydale. We can't afford to let the witch, or The First, know that we're coming. We have to use the element of surprise if we're going to succeed," Amanda explained to them all. She reached into the front part of her bag and pulled out a small round green looking object. It was a necklace, with a woven gold pattern circling an oval shaped green emerald. She looked to see that everyone else was doing likewise. She put the necklace over her head, and immediately, the green emerald glowed, but the glow faded away after a moment. She put the necklace under her clothes and moved off towards the gate. She knew that their task wasn't going to be an easy one, they only had a limited time to get to Sunnydale and then get back to England, or they'd come in too late and it wouldn't be enough. That's why as Amanda sat on her seat in the plane, she was sorting through plans that could help them kidnap the Slayer, because she was sure that she wouldn't come willingly. 

Four hours after their meeting in the lounge room, Buffy had decided to call everyone back to the room to discuss what they were going to do. She had spent almost the whole time trying to think of what they could do, now that they knew what was happening, and she had come up with a plan. She thought that it was a fairly good plan, but she was relying on some people she didn't even know to be able to pull it off. She looked around to everyone in the room, there was a good twenty or so of them now, and they were all looking to her. 

"Okay, so here's the deal," Buffy started, getting everyone's attention. "I've spent a lot of the time since our last meeting thinking of what we can do about the whole situation. I don't know what to do about the big picture, but I do have an idea about what we can do about the Hellmouth," Buffy said. This immediately got everyone's attention, and Buffy noticed that Giles had a keen interest in this. "We need to close it, and we need to have a better look around that area. We have to find out where that other hole leads to, so, I propose that we go to the Hellmouth, today," Buffy said. She saw small looks of shock on various people's faces, but she had expected that. "If all of the witches that are here now go, do you think you'd all be able to find a way to close the Hellmouth?" Buffy asked. 

"Uh, Buffy," Willow said, getting Buffy's attention. "I can't go anywhere near that thing. The last time I did, to rescue you, I kind of lost control," Willow said to her. Buffy looked at Willow and Buffy knew that she was scared of what would happen if she went near the Hellmouth again. 

"Okay. All the other witches, do you think you'd all be able to figure out how to close it?" Buffy asked. She looked around to all the witches in the room who were all looking at each other uncertainly. 

"Probably," Cassia said, speaking up. "If we had Cordelia's help, it would increase the chances greatly," Cassia said, while looking to Cordelia. 

"Do you think you'd be able to help them out?" Buffy asked Cordelia. Cordelia looked around at the witches. 

"I can probably do something to help them out," Cordelia replied. Buffy looked around to everyone. She hoped that this would work, they needed to close the Hellmouth before any more of the new, old vampires came out of it. 

"Then it's set. The witches will go to the Hellmouth, and Faith and I will take the potential Slayers along as protection, just in case any of the _Turokhan _showed up… We'll need all the numbers we can get," Buffy said, explaining to everyone in the room. She looked to Faith, who she could tell was ready to go back to the Hellmouth. She wasn't sure about some of the Potential Slayers though, some of them looked scared, but Buffy hoped that they'd be able to put aside their fears in case anything happened. "Then gear up, we're going," Buffy said. 

"What? Now?" Michaela exclaimed, looking at Buffy. 

"Yes, now," Buffy replied before starting to move off. 

"We're not ready, we've got to prepare," Michaela replied while getting to her feet. 

"There's not enough time to prepare. Right now, more of those things could be coming out of the Hellmouth, or god knows what else. The longer that Hellmouth stays open, the worse things are going to get. If you want to sit around here and do nothing, fine then, don't come… but the rest of us are going," Buffy replied, obviously a little strained. Buffy looked to Michaela, who she didn't even know. It sunk into her head that the girl had arrived in the town only a day before hand, not even that. She took in a deep breath and calmed herself. She looked around to everyone else in the room, seeing looks of surprise and worry on those of her friends, especially Dawn. She took another breath and then spoke again. "Look. As far as I know, I'm in charge here. If anyone else wants to step up and take the reins, do it now," Buffy said, leaving a minute or so for anyone to do so. "I'm only doing what I think is best, and if anyone thinks that this is a bad idea, say so," Buffy said while looking around to everyone in the room. "Giles?" Buffy questioned, knowing that if anyone else had a better idea, it would be him.

"I think it's a reasonable course of action," Giles said.

"What if there's more than three of them?" Dawn spoke up. "I mean, more than three of the super vamps, and what if they turn up." Buffy understood what Dawn was implying, and she knew that they'd need more muscle if they did show up while they were at the Hellmouth. 

"Okay, we'll take everyone who can handle themselves," Buffy stated to the group. "Be ready to leave in twenty minutes… and I want everyone to have weapons, the witches included," Buffy said while looking around at the group. She doubted that the vampires would turn up during the day time, but it didn't hurt to be too careful. 

Five minutes after their meeting in the lounge room of the Summers' house, Oz was sitting in the back of one of their vans with Michaela, who was still enraged over what was going to happen. 

"I can't believe her. She's so stupid. She's going to get them all killed, if not herself. We've been doing this longer than her," Michaela backbit. Oz could see where Michaela was coming from, but he didn't doubt Buffy's motives. "It's obviously a trap or it's going to be an ambush. The First never lets anything go without a cost," Michaela said. Oz knew that Michaela would calm down and that she would come to her senses. She always went on and on whenever she passionately disagreed with something. 

"Michaela, hey," Oz said while reaching out and grabbing hold of her hand. "It'll be okay. Buffy knows what she's doing, even if it looks crazy at the time. It's what makes her a good Slayer. She'll be able to handle it, and she needs all the help she can get," Oz said to her. Michaela just looked down at him and then replied,

"I know. That's why I'm going with them."

Faith had made sure that she was the first one to grab some weapons, being able to get her choice at what she was most comfortable with. Once again, she had grabbed two daggers and she had put them inside the inner pockets of her denim jacket, and she had grabbed a short axe and a couple of stakes to go along with them. She was surprised when a rather gaunt teenage boy stepped up in front of her. 

"Where are the weapons," he asked her. 

"Heh. Get real pipsqueak, you're not coming along," Faith replied to the boy. She could tell that he really didn't like that, and that he didn't know who he was dealing with. 

"I can handle myself," the boy replied to her. Faith thought that he was kidding around with her, but she realised that he was serious. It was then that she came up with a plan to tell if he could or not, and she really hoped that she was wrong about him. Faith turned around and walked a couple of paces away from the boy, trying to make him think that she was ignoring him. Then, she spun around, grabbed one of the daggers out of her hand and closed the distance between them. She faked a punch with her right, and swung the dagger with her left hand straight towards his head, and she was surprised when he blocked the blow and delivered and uppercut to her mid section. It wasn't hard, but she was surprised that that blow had got through. She stumbled back, away from the boy. 

"You're good," Faith said. She watched as a smirk came across the boy's face. The smirk remained on his face for the same length that it took to form there, as Faith had swept his legs out from under him and sent him to the ground. She stood over him and looked down at the look of shock on his face. She extended her hand down to him, offering to help him up. He grabbed her hand and Faith lifted him to his feet. "The weapons are this way," Faith said while nodding with her head towards the basement. "What's your name kid?" 

"Connor," the boy replied. 

"I'm Faith, the Vampire Slayer," Faith replied. 

"Yeah, so I've been told," Connor replied before heading towards the basement door.

Half an hour later, Buffy and Faith were at the front of a rather eclectic group of people standing just outside the former Sunnydale High School. There were the witches; Michaela, Nicola and Cassia. There was Cordelia. There was Connor. And there were eight potential Slayers with them; five that had come with the group from Los Angeles and three that had made contact with Buffy in Sunnydale. Buffy wrenched out the crossbow bolt from the wall of the High School that she had shot in there on their previous visit as a signal that they had entered the High School. Slowly, she stepped through the wrenched open doorway and into the ruins of the building. She could hear the people behind her follow her footsteps. They slowly made their way to the Library, which was on the other side of the school, making sure that they didn't hit the walls or any beams that had fallen from the ceiling, too hard in case they caused a cave in. The structure of the High School didn't look too stable in some places at all. They were just fifteen metres from the entrance to the Old Library when Buffy knew that she heard a noise. 

"Shh. Stop," she turned around and said quietly. She could hear a faint humming noise, she couldn't tell if it was chanting or the sound of something whirring. 

"You hear that B?" Faith said beside her. Buffy just nodded her head in response. She started to walk forward, being careful to be as silent as she was able to be. "Come on… quietly," Faith said behind her. She knew that the others would be coming behind her and she was especially glad for that. She reached the entrance to the Library and she could now make out the distinct sound of humming coming from within, and she knew that something was going down. She bent low and stuck her head around the corner, slowly and was met with a sight that she hadn't expected and that she had forgotten about. Standing around the Hellmouth were four vampires, just regular ordinary vampires. She could see one _Turokhan_ circling them, and she could see the red cloaked figure standing off to one side of the room. Those things weren't the things that troubled her though. The things that troubled her was that she saw two large dark hooded figures in the room, and that they were looking straight at her. 

"Shit. Seeophers," Buffy said. 

___________

There's the next chapter. Ya get the little bit at the end? I think it's _Kind of_ funny.

Next chapter that's coming up

****

Chapter 26 - A Mystery in the Heart of Danger

Heavily Recommended Reading: Prologue of War Cries. I really really really strongly suggest you go back and re-read this before continuing on with the next chapters. There's something in the Prologue that I KNOW you've forgotten about, and the story aint gonna make sense unless you go back and re-read that section of the story. Pay particular attention to Rhon the Vampire. 


	27. Chapter 26 A Mystery in the Heart of Da...

I'm sorry it took so long to update… Uni started and I have NO free time what so ever, and I mean NO free time. I'm lucky if I can find half an hour a day, and even then it's stretching it.

If you don't know what's going on in a couple of bits, that's okay, and I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little 'out of joint' as I started the first half of it a couple of months ago, and finished the next half of it tonight.

Enjoy

________________________

Chapter 26

A Mystery in the Heart of Danger (Part 1)

As of half an hour ago, they had quickened their pace. He didn't know where they were going, but he guessed that it was still far away, and he could sense that the hours of sunlight were waning. Spike had tried to get some answers out of the people around him, because he figured that they knew more of what was going on than he did, but they didn't say anything. He wanted to know what had happened here. Just about every third building or so was in ruins, or had large chunks missing out of them. The roads were carved up and in some places that they had gone, there was no road left, only dirt. In the distance, Spike had seen a freeway that had collapsed. There weren't any cars on what was left of the roads; the only car that Spike had seen had rusted and was falling to pieces and was half buried under a piece of a building. 

"Where are you taking me?" Spike asked. He just got the normal response; a prod in the back with one of the weapons that the girl was holding behind him. He had noticed that everyone else had their weapons facing the outside of their little circle, but Spike had soon noticed that the one behind him was pointing to his back. 

"Hurry up," the girl behind him said while jamming her weapon into his back harder. 

An hour later, Spike could see that the sun was setting on the horizon. He noticed that everyone in the small group that he was in had tensed up and that their senses were on the complete alert. He also noticed that the direction of the wind had switched directions. Spike could now smell the presence of something close to them, something that had been following them for a while, staying upwind, until now. 

"There's something following us," Spike said. He was surprised when everyone else in the group just seemed to ignore him and didn't take in that he could be alerting them to a potential danger. "Did anyone hear me? I said that there is something following us…" Spike started again. 

"We know Spike, now just shut up and be quiet," Giles said from behind him. For the whole time, the Watcher had remained quiet and followed in the girls' footsteps. He was also in the centre of the group, but he at least had weapons. They had walked about half a mile when everyone in the group just came to an abrupt halt. Spike saw Buffy make a signal with her hand, and everyone crouched down. The girl behind Spike just about threw him to the ground. They all crouched low to the ground and ran behind the cover of the front of a collapsed building.

"What is it?" Spike whispered once they had gotten behind cover. He expected no one to answer him, just like usual, but that wasn't the case this time. 

"It's Angelus," Faith whispered back to him. Spike didn't know what to make of that, he had heard Buffy and Faith speaking of Angelus, but he had just thought that he had heard wrong. Suddenly, Spike noticed a certain spark run through the air, and the air become energised. He knew what it was; there was something extremely powerful nearby. He could smell that the presence he had sensed earlier was closer now; it was so close that they should be able to see whatever was following them. Spike turned around and looked down the street. He couldn't see anything, but then, he saw a figure that was marching straight down the middle of the street shimmer into existence. 

"What's that?" Spike asked. He took a closer look at the figure. It was a woman, dressed completely in black with black eyes and black hair. 

"Oh no. It's Amy," Giles said. "Come on, this way," Giles said while pointing towards an alley that was close by. They all crouched low to the ground and made their way towards the entrance of the alley that was at least twenty feet away. It wasn't until they had entered the alley that Spike noticed that the black haired girl was now paying attention to them. He had no idea who she was, but he knew that she was powerful, he could sense that much. The fact that she was looking straight at them wasn't a good thing. When they entered the alley, Spike followed Buffy and Faith's lead and ran as fast as he could. Exactly when they were halfway, three figures made themselves visible at the other end of the alley. Spike could tell that they were vampires, but he knew that they were different. Their faces didn't even closely resemble a human's and they had large claw like hands. They all turned around, but they saw that there were more vampires coming down the alley behind him. 

"It was a trap," the girl that had made it her job to prod him in the back said. Spike watched as everyone in the group raised their weapons and pointed them at the vampires. 

"Oh well. I'm in the mood for a good throw down," Spike said. 

Buffy made another quick observation of the room. The vampires that were standing around the Hellmouth were performing some kind of ritual; purple - black - red energy was swirling around above the Hellmouth. The _Turokhan_ was now alerted to their presence and was coming towards them, but the Syophers were keeping their distance and remaining close to the Hellmouth. The red cloaked figure was also coming towards them. 

"They've made us, let's go," Buffy said before rounding the corner. She wished she hadn't. More of the room became visible to her, and she could see at least another two _Turokhan_ that were coming towards them. She was about to call out to Faith, but stopped when she saw her fellow Slayer step up beside her. 

"You ready for this?" Faith said to Buffy while tightening her grip on the axe that she was carrying and bringing it up in front of her. 

"I have to be," Buffy replied before raising her sword and looking the _Turokhan_ that was coming towards them straight in the eyes. She sensed a presence behind them and she turned to see the teenage boy, Angel's son, Connor standing behind them. Without saying a word, Buffy took a step forward and before she knew what was happening, instincts had taken over, putting one foot in front of the other in quick succession, taking her straight towards the _Turokhan_. She was close enough now to attack the first _Turokhan_. With as much speed and force she could put behind her, she swung her sword diagonally down towards the Turokhan, and she was surprised when it dodged the blow. Using the momentum of her swing, she spun around and sliced the sword through the air towards it's head. She was glad that it hadn't been expecting the move, and that it didn't have time to dodge out of the way, raising its arm up in it's defence. Buffy's sword cleanly sliced through the _Turokhan's _wrist, cutting off it's hand. It backed away and roared in pain, and Buffy used that advantage to lunge at it with her sword, sticking it through where the vampire's heart was, wishing that she was holding a wooden sword. She started to pull the sword back when she felt an impact on her left side, and she went sprawling to the ground. Before she knew what was happening, fists were beating down on her head, knocking it back into the ground over and over again. She tried to fend off the blows from the Turokhan that was on top of her, but she couldn't, it was too fast and too furious, and Buffy knew that with every blow, she sunk further and further towards unconsciousness. 

A blast sent the Turokhan flying off of Buffy, and with a quick glance, she looked up to see that Michaela and the witches had entered the fight. She got up and saw that the Potential's had come around the corner. She had made sure that every one of them was armed with a crossbow and a stake before they had left her home. "Faith, Connor, out of the way!" Buffy called out. Faith and Connor were both engaged in a fight with a _Turokhan_ each. She saw them try to get away from the _Turokhan_ but they couldn't. She saw Faith get beaten back onto the ground and Connor knock the _Turokhan _he was facing away from him. "Now!" she called, and watched as the eight potential's fired their crossbows at both of the _Turokhan_, effectively knocking them to the ground and immobilising them for a brief period. Without a moment of hesitation, Buffy took off towards the one nearest Faith and brought her sword down, cutting off of it's head. She didn't even look to see if the _Turokhan_ had dusted before she was looking towards Connor, seeing that he had stuck his stake into the _Turokhan's_ chest. 

Buffy turned to face the room that the Hellmouth was enclosed in, ready for whatever they sent at her next. Dispatching of the _Turokhan_ had been easier than she had expected, and now she felt as if she was ready for anything. She saw that the figure cloaked in red was turning to face them. Connor started to run at him, and with a wave of a hand, he was sent flying back into the wall. Buffy and Faith both simultaneously started to rush towards the red cloaked figure, but it raised it's hand and they both were held back by an invisible wall. 

Michaela was ignoring the events occurring in front of her, focusing on the vampires which were kneeling at each compass point of the Hellmouth. They all had their eyes closed, and their palms raised above the hole which was supposedly the Hellmouth. She could see dark shadows swirling around each one of their bodies, and she could see a small blue ball of energy begin to form above the Hellmouth. She took the other things around the room. She noticed that the Hellmouth was enclosed in the centre of a black pentacle that had been drawn on the floor, and that there was an object sitting at each point of the pentacle. She briefly looked to the events unfolding in front of her, seeing Buffy and Faith being kept back by the red cloaked figure, and she saw that the Syophers were both just standing and watching the proceedings, not interfering, yet. She was stirred out of her observations as she felt the energy of the air around them all shift and change, become energised. She noticed that the blue ball of energy in the centre of the Hellmouth was now expanding slowly, and it was energising the air around it. She looked over to one of the Syophers, who had air shimmering around it, making it appear blurred. She looked back to the red cloaked figure, who was now standing with it's head bowed. She saw something else move that wasn't in the centre of her vision, and she looked over the vampires, who were now encircled in a ring of blue and red energy, and were turning to dust. In an instant of clarity, Michaela put all the pieces together.

"Everyone get back! Now!" Michaela yelled. She bowed her head to the ground and concentrated the energies within her and around her to form a protective shield around her and those close to her. 

Almost everyone was behind her, they could all sense now that something was happening. Even Buffy and Faith had obeyed her words once she had spoke them, which surprised her given their 'Slayer goes first' attitudes. She was standing before the group and what was about to happen, she was their only hope. She quickly gave her thanks to everyone she had known and met in that group, even if she had only met them for a short time. She thought of Oz, and how she would never get to see his face again, or hear his voice. She thought of Daniel, Naomi, Brett and Naomi, all of whom she would probably never see again. This was it, this was the day that they had all been dreading and trying to prevent. She looked up and she had never felt so alone before in her life, but then she noticed a presence on either side of her. She looked to her left to see Naomi standing beside her, her eyes transfixed in front of her, staring into the room where the Hellmouth was. She looked to her right, and she saw the image of Cordelia Chase standing beside her, and she was glad that she was there, she was comforted by the fact that she had a very powerful being standing beside her. It was then, that Cordelia Chase disappeared, and a mass of blue energy was left in her place. She could feel the raw power resonating out of the mass of blue energy, but she doubted that it would be enough. "Inanna, goddess of the heavens and Ares, god of war and strength, and Gaia, mother of the earth, protect and watch over us in this dark hour. Bless us, your chosen warriors," Michaela said in a last ditch effort to help them survive the next few moments. She closed her eyes and concentrated on pushing all of her energy outwards to form a barrier between them and the Hellmouth. It was then that she heard a loud crack, and all her thoughts about the barrier, about the Hellmouth ceased and her last thoughts were of Oz. 

He stood on the back verandah of their apartment, looking out over the city below them as the sun had almost set over the horizon. The apartment was on the top of a hill, and had an unobstructed view of the city. He took a moment to look at the sky, which was a dark orange with not a cloud in sight. The sky scrapers on the horizon were just large dark shapes, no detail visible on them because of their shadow cast by the setting sun. He watched hundreds of commuters went about their way in their cars along the freeways and streets below. They were all so innocent. None of them knew of the horrors that were right under their noses. For a moment, he wished that he could go back to being blissfully ignorant again, that he'd be able to go about his day where his only cares were of making enough money, and how to do his job properly and how to please his wife. Instead, he had to worry about surviving every day, and every night amongst the vampires and demons of the world. There was a down side though, if he didn't know about what went bump in the night, he wouldn't have his job that he had now. It was what kept him going sometimes, knowing that he was fighting the only fight worth fighting, that he was making a difference in the world and that he wasn't ending another human life in order to save another. He snapped out of his day dream and looked out to the city of Los Angeles once again. If the rumours were true, he was here for a major operation which was deemed beyond top secret. He didn't know of anyone else in his team that was here, but then again, he knew that he probably wouldn't know until their first mission. He had been pulled out of an operation in New York City to come here, tracking a master vampire and trying to break down his broad network of vampires that reigned up and down the East Coast. If he was pulled out of that to come here, it had to be big. The word that was going around was that something big was happening world wide, and that Los Angeles here was one of the major hot spots, and that the number of vampires in the city had quadrupled over the last month, and that they were being led by the vampire equivalent of Jesus Christ. Those were the rumours that he had heard any way. 

He heard a beeping at his side, and he fished his beeper out of his pocket. He looked to the message, which read; _"Code 12, Corner Madison and Charles st. 1900hrs. Sgt R Finn."_. Bobby McCarthy looked at his watch, and saw that it read 1815. That meant that he only had 45 minutes to find and get to the corner of Madison and Charles streets and rendezvous with Sergeant Riley Finn.

_____________

So, that's that chapter. 

From now on, I'm going to try and make it more personal. I'm reading a story at the moment that is personal, and it's really good. 

Reviews are always Appreciated

****

Next Chapter: A Mystery in the Heart of Danger (Part 2)


	28. Chapter 27 A Mystery in the Heart of Da...

So I lied when I said that the next chapters were coming in 2 weeks. I managed to do one now. Here, it is pretty obvious what idea I have ripped out of Angel. And please, no one say anything to me about what happens in the End of Angel. I've only seen up to the one where Fred has turned into Ithilca, and nothing more, so, sorry if I get things wrong.

Things in this chapter keep things moving along at a good steady pace towards where I'm getting. In a few chapters, I think, If I can time everything right, everything's going to explode into action and the story will start to finally enter "The Final Battles" which has been building up since "Post Grave". If I can't time everything right, it'll take an extra 4 or 5 chapters to start getting to "The Final Battles"

Chapter 27

A Mystery in the Heart of Danger (Part 2)

She could hear a dull thud, beating over and over again, repeating itself in a regular pattern. There was nothing else. She tried to piece together what was going on around her, but she couldn't remember. She must be in bed, and she must have fallen asleep and left her music on. That story fit, she could remember dreaming about something, but when she tried to recall the facts, she couldn't remember what the dream was about. She could now sense what was around her. She could feel her body now, and she could feel the pain in them. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't, not yet. She tried to move her limbs, but she couldn't. Time and everything else was meaningless. She heard the dull beat get softer and softer, and she realised that it was her heart beating in her chest that she was hearing. In a rush, all of her senses came back to her, touch, smell, taste, sight, and hearing. She heard someone groan in pain, and realised that it was her. Pain shot through her body like a red hot fire, incinerating everything it touched. She felt sick to the stomach, and as soon as she thought about it, she rolled over and vomited on the floor. She knew that she wasn't in her bed now, as she could feel the dirt and cold hard earth beneath her. The images and memories came rushing back to her. Their travels to Sunnydale, their meeting with Buffy and her friends. Her injury from the mysterious red hooded magician and Oz helping her through it. Looking at the energy swirling around the Hellmouth, the Syopher and the fight with the Turokhan, the energy build up. Naomi and Cordelia coming to stand beside her before the final moments of her memory, and then nothing.

Other images came rushing to Michaela. She could see a blackened sky, with thousands of figures standing before her, shouting and cheering. It looked like a giant army, but of what, she had no idea. She had never seen creatures like them before. They were human in shape, but their skin looked like it was made from the earth, cracked like parchment and black. Another image came to her, the image of the trees and a great forest. For some reason, she could remember the colour of green very well, and in her series of visions, it meant something to her. In the next vision, she could see a clear sky, with the sun showing it's full force. She was standing on the top of a hill, looking down at a field below her, where bodies were scattered all over it, and weapons lay on the ground.

As suddenly as her visions had come, they had gone again and Michaela was left on the ground, in pain and confused. She opened her eyes, to see that she was lying among the bodies of her friends and colleagues in the fight against 'The First', and none of them, not even the Slayers looked in good shape. Michaela heard a noise come from somewhere, and to her horror, she could see a figure walking up to her, draped in red robes. It stood above her and looked down, pulling back it's hood. Revealed was a young looking woman, with pale skin, dark, dark red hair and the same colour eyes.

"Do not interfere Inanna. You are not meant to be here, and not in that shell. The Ability is ours to send you back to where we came from as easily as we were summoned. Do not interfere in the coming battles, and we shall allow you to remain here," the woman said before putting her hood over her head again. Michaela just looked up at it in fear as a Syopher and a vampire approached the woman, and escorting her away, leaving them to be. Michaela tried to go through what the strange woman had said to her, to make sure that it got lodged in her memory. Although her brain wasn't fully up to function yet after being knocked unconscious, and for all she knew, almost killed, she knew that that woman that had spoken to her was what The First and the Syophers had summoned.

Michaela pulled herself up into a sitting position against the wall, and as soon as she did so, she vomited again. When she was done, she was shocked to see that blood had come out, instead of intestinal products, most of it was blood. She was distracted as she heard a groan from the room she was in, knowing that it was one of theirs as everything else was gone.

"Who killed me," she heard from the litter of unconscious bodies lying around on the floor. She saw someone move, their back facing away from her. Michaela couldn't make it out as her world was starting to spin. "Hey, you don't look so good," she hear the voice say again. She recognised it, but she couldn't place it. She looked up and could barely make out the image of Connor, who had pulled himself up so that he was resting against a rock.

"You don't look so good yourself either you know," Michaela managed to reply back. She heard a voice from somewhere, but she couldn't identify where it had come from, or what it had said. She looked around, still dizzy, for anyone else who had managed to wake up, but there was no one. She hear the voice again, and it was whispering to her. "What did you say?" she asked Connor.

"What, I didn't say anything," Connor replied.

"_Return the world to the earth,_" Michaela heard. She looked around for anything that was making the noise, but she couldn't see anything. "_Return the world to the earth. Set us Free,_" she heard again.

"What is that?" Michaela heard Connor say out loud, but she got the impression that Connor wasn't talking to her. She could feel the dizziness increase, and she knew that she was swaying, and that if it kept increasing, she wouldn't be able to stay sitting.

"You hear it too?" Michaela replied. She saw Connor looking right at her, in a strange way, but it wasn't Connor who was looking at her. Instead, she saw luminescent blue hair, pale skin, and the same coloured eyes looking back at her with a puzzled expression.

"Inanna?" Michaela heard before her world went black.

Spike might have been in the mood for a good fight, but that's exactly what he didn't get. As soon as the strange vampires had started off towards them, Buffy, Faith and one of the other girls advanced ahead and Spike was sent sprawling to the ground by the girl who was behind him. He could hear her chanting something and could feel a breeze blow past them both. Spike was then hauled to his feet and met with a sight that took the breath out of him. Ahead he saw Buffy, Faith and the other girl fighting against the three vampires, going faster than anything he had ever seen, and using moves that he had never known possible for a human, slayer or vampire to do.

"Through here," he heard. He turned to see that one of the two remaining girls and Giles were all now standing next to a portal. He saw the girl who had been guarding him reach out to grab his shirt. He _gently_ struck her hand away.

"Hey, no one touches me," Spike said. He watched as the blonde girl rolled her eyes and with speed and force that he thought only Slayers possessed, reached out, grabbed his shirt, and almost threw him in through the portal.

He stumbled when he hit the ground and quickly regained his footing, wondering how the girl was able to possess that much strength. He looked around, he was in a dark room with a doorway on each side. Outside the room, the rest of the building looked, sounded and smelled like it was abandoned. The portal was still open behind him, and he decided he was going to get away from this place as fast as he could. He didn't want to be held prisoner by Buffy and Faith, especially after what he had seen they were in the middle of. He couldn't piece together the pieces, but he knew that whatever had caused the destruction of LA and Sunnydale, the Slayers were in the thick of, and he wanted no part of it. Spike stepped towards the doorway and stopped when a figure stood in it, her faced shadowed.

"You're not going anywhere," the voice said. Spike recognised the voice, but he couldn't place his finger on it. He saw the figure step forward and recognised her immediately.

"And you think you're going to stop me now do you Red?" Spike teased.

"Yes, I think I do," Willow replied confidently. Spike just turned around and started walking quickly towards the other door, when two girls came in through it. "You're staying here Spike," Willow said. Spike kept on walking, and unexpectedly, one of the girls extended her in a kick towards Spike's face. He caught it, but didn't see a kick to the kneecaps coming from the other girl and he was sent sprawling to the ground, yet again. He heard a sound behind him and he guessed that someone else had come through the portal. He got up and looked to Willow.

"How could they…" he started. "Why do all the women I've met so far, since this has all happened possess the ability to send me face first into the ground?" Spike said.

"It's easy," Willow replied. "They're all Slayers." There was a slight pause as Spike took in what Willow had just said.

"They're _all_ slayers?" Spike repeated.

"Yeah. God, where have you been for the last year and a half?" Willow replied casually. Spike looked to see that the girl who had been escorting him walk directly up to Willow.

"Willow, it's Amy," was all she said.

"Okay, I'm on it," Willow replied before turning away and walking directly into the portal, just as if she was walking through an ordinary doorway.

"Well why the hell didn't we use a portal in the first place?" Spike exclaimed. The girl who had been guarding him looked over her shoulder.

"Because they're dangerous now. They collapse very easily because the fabric of reality has been altered. You may end up opening up a portal, and then once you step through, it may collapse and there'll be little pieces of you in a thousand dimensions. Only the powerful witches can use them now," she said.

"So, how come you opened the portal here?" Spike asked.

"Like I said, only the most powerful witches even dare to use portals," the girl replied.

"Skye, come on, we've got things to do," another girl said who had come through the portal.

They pulled up outside the ruined building and the sun was still beating down overhead. He looked out of the window of the black limousine to the ruins of the Sunnydale High School, waiting for them to come out. He had only come back to this job, because he believed that it was the only way that he could save himself in the coming battles. The white hats weren't going to win this one, especially now with what they had going for them. He took notice of the building when he saw movement inside the building and saw a large figure come out of the entryway, cloaked in a dark drape. He tried to see under it, but could see nothing. He got out of the car and slowly approached.

"So, that's a Syopher," he said under his breath. "They're don't look so tough." Next, he saw a figure draped in red come though the entryway. He pressed his suit down and made sure that it was presentable. He approached the figure and watched as the figure pulled the robe away from it's head. He saw a pale, yet beautiful face with dark red hair which almost looked black, and with the same coloured eyes. He looked to the Syopher, and he immediately felt a wave of fear and nervousness sweep through him, but he knew that it was only the effect of being in close proximity to the Syopher. He rounded up his best, and most calm voice and said,

"Hello. My name is Lindsey McDonald, and as a representative of Wolfram and Hart, I would like to welcome you back Caelecae (Kal-ee-sae)," Lindsey said. He saw the woman look at him for a while, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Why does Wolf Ram and Hart seek to insult me. They are weak, only little more powerful than the Vampyr," the woman said in a strange accent that Lindsey said. Lindsey was put off by that, he had read up on what he needed to, but he wasn't used to seeing anyone have so little regard for Wolfram and Hart, not even he did.

"I think you will find that much has changed since your time. Wolfram and Hart isn't as weak as it once was. And, Humans rule the Earth now," Lindsey said.

"Humans rule this world?" The figure called Caelecae said, "how."

"They are a very intelligent race, and very inventive," Lindsey replied.

"And you, what is your role in this?" Caelecae asked.

"I work for Wolfram and Hart, as I have already said, and I am to act as your guide to this world and to act as a liaison between you and the Senior Partners," Lindsey replied. He gestured towards the limo waiting across the road, and started moving towards it. He was glad when Caelecae started moving towards it with him.

"And what is this the function of this instrument?" Caelecae asked, standing outside the limo.

"It is an invention by Humans, used for transport. You will come to no harm," Lindsey replied. He guided into the back of it before getting in himself. He looked out the window to the Syopher, who he only got a glimpse of as it shimmered out of existence. Once the limousine began to head off, Lindsey was bombarded with questions from Caelecae.

"Why haven't demons wiped the humans from existence if they rule? Have demons become so weak?"

"They have managed to create quite formidable warriors for themselves. They have created a line of chosen warriors, called Slayers, which have become more formidable as time has progressed. Originally, Wolfram and Hart didn't see them as posing as a major threat, but that changed a couple of hundred years ago, when they became more powerful. The Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart are quite concerned about them now, as the line of the Slayer seems to be changing," Lindsey explained (_Reference to the end of Post Grave, Tara's line_).

"But they are only human warriors, am I correct?"

"Yes, but they are imbued with the spirit of a demon, which gives them strength, speed and coordination," Lindsey replied.

"And how many of these warriors are there?" Caelecae asked.

"There is only meant to be one in every generation, but there are two at the moment," Lindsey replied.

"Only one?" Caelecae asked, sounding surprised.

"Yes, only one," Lindsey replied.

"I will have to meet one of these, Slayers. They must truly be a formidable opponent," Caelecae said. Lindsey withheld the fact that both of the Slayers were in the room that Caelecae had just come from.

"And why have we been called?" Caelecae put forward to Lindsey. He was confused as Caelecae asked the question, referring to more than one of them. He decided that he wouldn't raise the question with her, and just answer the question.

"I was not informed, but that is where we are going at the moment," Lindsey replied.

Bobby McArthy listening to what Sergeant Finn was saying (_War Cries, Chapter 26 – A Mystery in the Heart of Danger, Part 1)._ He, Sergeant Riley Finn, and three others had been assigned to Los Angeles because of reports of greatly increased vampire activity. Their job was to hunt around, and look to see if there were any signs of an increase in the number of vampires in the city, and if so, find out why and how this had occurred before reporting back to Special Ops HQ. Bobby was glad that they were finally back in the US, after spending months in the Peruvian Jungle, and then being transferred to Vasteras – Sweden, it felt good to be working on his home soil again. According to Riley, there was a group from England coming in and making a stop over before heading to Sunnydale, and their job was to set up a perimeter for the English group to make a rendevous with an unknown contact. Bobby didn't like the sounds of it, but orders were orders. He felt better when he learned that Riley didn't trust the orders as much as he did, and knowing Riley's past, he wouldn't sit quietly by and let things go over the top of him.

"Okay, if there's no questions. Head out," Bobby heard Riley Finn say.

****

Somewhere in Los Angeles, 9:00 PM

Amanda and her crew had touched down in Los Angeles hours ago, and they had just busied themselves until the rendezvous time. They were to meet with a contact that the coven had, who somehow knew inside information on what was going on in Sunnydale. They were to acquire the situation in Sunnydale and find the last known location of the Slayers. They had just arrived five blocks from where their rendezvous was meant to take place. They were all dressed in their standard gear, black leather suits that covered their whole body except for their hands, feet and face, bound with a magickal solute which made the suits light and flexible.

"Jonathon, Sandra, Derrick, branch out and set up a perimeter and move inwards towards the rendezvous point. It might be a trap. Carmen, Michael, you two shadow me, and stay out of sight," Amanda instructed. She trusted the coven, and she trusted that they needed this information, but there was something off about this mission, and she wasn't taking any chances. She watched as Jonathon and Derrick took the off to the left and the right, at a fast and silent run. They would be in position in a couple of minutes. She watched as Sandra rushed off ahead, running along the footpath and hugging the shadows. To any normal human being, they would only catch a glimpse of her from time to time if they were looking in the right direction. She sensed Carmen and Michael, who were to be shadowing her leave her presence, and retreat some distance behind her. She looked around the streets, and she couldn't see any sign of activity. She crouched low to the ground, and put her palm on the road.

"No vibrations, good," Amanda said, knowing that if she couldn't sense any vibrations there were no cars nearby. She raised her head and looked up at the waxing moon above and she could see that it was to soon be smothered by clouds. She stood there, in the middle of the street, waiting until there was no light emitted by the moon before she even began about starting off. She concentrated, and the world in front of her lit up like it was made of neon, as her irises in her eyes expanded and her eyeball lengthened. Her hearing increased until she could hear a television that was on in an apartment three stories above her. Within an instant, she had set off, travelling almost silently, and clinging to the shadows.

****

Rendezvous Point, 9:10 PM

Riley Finn had set his team of ten up in buildings surrounding the area where the meet was meant to take place, which was on the corner of two four lane roads for some reason. He didn't know why they had decided to meet here, but that's all that he had been told. They were working in conjunction with a Coven in England, which was apparently very powerful that they had been told was a reliable source as they had told the American O Ops, short for Occult Ops, that they had helped out Willow from the Slayers group. They had informed them of a meet that was to take place between some of their operatives and an unknown contact, and that a very important object was to be exchanged. However, Riley had heard from his own sources that the Coven wasn't as good as they seemed, and that they usually have an ulterior motive and that this object may in fact be better off in the hands of O Ops. That's why it was so hard on this first job in LA, he didn't know who to believe. He had decided that he would wait and see what the object was before he would decide whether to make a move or not. Riley watched from the behind the window of a bakery as a figure moved up the sidewalk of the street across the road from him. The figure stopped and waited at the corner directly across the intersection from him. Riley knew that this must have been the contact. He got out his binoculars and tried to get a look at the figure's face, but he was standing in the shadows.

"That must be the contact, everyone hold positions," Riley said. Riley was waiting another five minutes before anything else happened. He was shocked to see a woman appear out what seemed like no where. Of course, that wasn't the case, but none of his team members had had any idea of her approach. From what he could make out, she had long red-brown hair, and was dressed completely in black leather. He sensed that there was something different about her, but he couldn't place it. "There's the other one, everyone hold positions, but be ready to move at my command," Riley said into his comm. He grabbed his binoculars as he watched the two figures approach each other. The first male figure was still staying in the shadows, and he couldn't identify him. He could make out the two talking, but nothing was happening. He watched as the male got a small object out of his jacket and gave it to the woman.

"Sir, we have three contacts moving fast towards the rendezvous from the South, heat signatures indicate that they're vamps," one of Riley's team members said into the comm.

"There's five more coming from the West," another one of his team members reported.

"Four from the East," another one reported.

"Sir, we have approximately fifteen vamps coming in from the North," another team member said.

"Acknowledged, everyone hold positions," Riley replied to his team. He grabbed the binoculars and looked at the two figures. The woman seemed to have some idea that it was a trap, and he could tell that the shadowed figure didn't have a clue, or was the one orchestrating it. Riley put the binoculars down and just as he did so, he saw the first figure move into the light. He grabbed the binoculars and immediately recognised the figure. He chucked them away, readied his weapon and started running out the door. "Go, go, go. The contact is Ethan Rayne, take him in alive. Be advised, he has magickal abilities," Riley almost shouted into the microphone. As he ran out the door, he heard two of his team members following him, and saw three more come out of the building adjacent to the rendezvous point. He ran towards the two figures, raising his modified rifle as he did so. It had the capability to shoot bullets as well as a stun beam which was developed and used by The Initiative.

"No body move, no body move," he heard someone say. They had formed a loose circle around the pair.

"Ethan Rayne. I wish I could say that it was good to see you again, but hey, it isn't," Riley said.

"Sir, the HST's are being killed off by an unknown number of assailants. One minute they're there, the next the vamps are dead, the next they've gone," Riley heard over his comm. He saw the woman turn when the message had come over the comm. He got a glimpse of her face, and he saw that she had unnaturally green eyes which haunted, yet enchanted him at the same time. He didn't like the looks of her, and he knew that she knew about the things taking out the vampires. He looked to one of his team members, Bobby, and then nodded in the direction of the girl.

"Miss, I'll need you to drop the object and put your hands in the air," Bobby said to her from behind, raising his rifle. The woman didn't even acknowledge that he had spoken, just kept staring at Ethan Rayne. "Miss, I repeat, drop the object and put your hands in the air," Bobby repeated, this time, pushing his rifle into her back. Before Riley knew what was happening, the woman had spun around, knocked the rifle out of Bobby's hands, kicked him in the midgut, and rammed her hand open palmed into his face, sending him sprawling back onto the bitumen on his back with blood pouring out of his face. Immediately, Riley pointed his rifle at her, but he felt a pressure against the back of his neck.

"Don't even think about it," he heard a feminine voice say behind him. He looked around to his other team members, and saw that there were figures dressed in the same outfit as the woman in front of him, all pointing weapons at his team members.

"Looks like they've got you beat," Ethan said to Riley. Riley looked around and noticed that they all had the same kind of green eyes as the woman in front of him as well. "Drop the rifle," the voice behind him said. He put it on the ground and then put his hands up on his head, and he saw the rest of his team members doing the same. The people holding them hostage each took the rifles off of the ground and slung them over their backs.

"Sir, there are three cars of HSTs approaching rapidly from the South," he heard over his comm. At that same moment, Riley caught a glimpse of Ethan Rayne, who had stayed unusually quiet the whole time. He watched as the image of Ethan Rayne disappeared and it was replaced with a large, dark hooded figure which towered above them. A wave of panic and terror went through him as he realised that the situation was far out of hand. As soon as the hooded figure appeared, the people with the green eyes moved out and away from them, and Riley noticed that they weren't pointing their weapons at his team members any more.

"Get away from it, it's a Syopher," the main woman said in a frantic voice to Riley and his team members. Immediately, Riley started backing away. He watched as his team members did the same. He noticed that all of the people who were dressed in black had put their weapons away and got his rifles off of their backs and were now pointing it in the direction of the black cloaked figure. He watched as six beams of energy were simultaneously at the figure, and it didn't do anything. He watched in horror as the figure approached Bobby, who had been taken down by the woman. Riley saw Bobby pull out his hand gun and shoot four rounds at the figure, but the figure raised it's cloaked hand, and the bullets stopped in mid air. When the figure lowered it's hand, the bullets literally fell out of the air. He saw the woman who had taken Bobby down move in towards the figure with speed that he hadn't seen any living person, or dead person for that matter, move at in his life, and deliver a spinning kick to the dark cloaked figure. He was surprised when it actually had an effect on the figure, sending it stumbling backwards a few steps. Two more of the woman's team moved in behind her and picked up Bobby's body and retreat. By now, they had backed out of the intersection and were making their way down a street. Still backing away, he could see three cars coming down the street in front of him, behind the cloaked figure. He knew that those were the cars full of HSTs.

Amanda stood in front of the Syopher, looking directly at it, her knees trembling slightly. She had encountered a few of them in her past, but had never been this close to one, let alone attacked one. She looked past it to see three cars approaching rapidly, and from the commando's comm unit, she knew that they were full of vampires. She started backing away from the Syopher, knowing that she had to get as much distance between it and herself as possible. She started to back pedal, and saw that the Syopher was coming around, and that the position that it's head would be under the cloaks was looking straight at her. She started back pedaling faster, as her legs began to grow weaker from fear. She knew that her fear was an effect that the Syopher was having on her, but that didn't matter to her. Her eyes grew wide as she saw a glint of metal, and saw a large knife in the Syopher's hand. It slowly started coming towards her and she turned and ran. She hadn't noticed the sounds of gunfire until then. She could see her team members down on one knee, firing past them at the vampires that must have been approaching behind her.

"Scatter!" Amanda shouted. Immediately, she saw her team members get up from their firing positions and turn around and start off in the direction Amanda was headed. She saw them all telling the commando's to follow them as they started to run. At the first intersection they came to, she saw everyone go in three different directions and noticed that the commando's were following them. They would have to make sure that everyone was safe before they left the commando's behind. Amanda took the left turn and headed down hill. She could hear feet behind her and knew that she had the leader of the commando's following her.

They ran for another fifteen minutes before she decided to stop. She slowed down to a walk, still not paying any attention to the commando behind him. Riley was beginning to wonder if she even knew that he was there. He had to stop, he couldn't go any further.

"Stop, I need to rest," Riley said. He was shocked to see the woman turn around, and to see that she wasn't even the slightest bit tired. He watched as the woman crouched onto the ground and pressed her palm against the bitumen.

"There is no one following us," she said while standing up. He watched her walk up to him and pull out her weapon. Head East, I sense that traffic is the closest in that direction," she said. She shoved her pistol into his hands. "Take this. It's semi-automatic. If you run across any vampires, shoot them. The bullets have ultraviolet capsules within them which explode upon impact. Take the bullets, study them and replicate them. Your military will need them in the coming weeks," the woman said to him before starting to back away.

"Wait? What? Tell me what you know?" Riley called out as the woman turned away, giving him one last look with her haunting eyes. He watched as she ran off with amazing speed, and disappeared in the shadows lining the streets.

So, whaddya think of that. MY first chapter since I've been back from my long break from writing. Oh, and if you think that there's too many people running around nad that they're all too hard to keep track of, don't worry, their numbers will start dropping like flies soon. In other words, EXPECT CHARACTER DEATHS TO OCCUR WITHIN THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS

****

Next Chapter: A Couple of Million Years Ago


	29. Chapter 28 A Couple of Million Years Ag...

Okay, here's the next chapter. I did this in a couple of hours, can you believe that. I definitely lied when I said the next chapter would be up in 2 weeks time.

A big surprise in this chapter, and also, a lot of references to previous chapters. Mainly things are taken directly from previous chapters (copy and paste).. You'll see.

Chapter 28

A Couple of Million Years Ago

She looked around at the people in the small room before her. She sized them all up, in terms of their magickal abilities. None of them were even close to her power, but there were some in the room who were quite powerful, some who were just dabblers. She had managed to call at least ten people to her for her first meeting, seven of which were female, three of which were male. Amy Madison had cast a common, yet complex glamour spell on herself, to hide her dark eyes and hair from the group. She needed them to see her as just another ordinary person. She took looked around to the people in the room again, decided that now was a better time to start than ever.

"Everyone, please, listen up," she called out, quietening everyone and getting their attention. When she was satisfied that her audience was going to listen to her, she began to speak. "Everyone, I have requested this gathering, as it as come to my attention that there is a great danger to this world," Amy started. "There is a witch that I know of, who used to be my friend, who has acquired too much power. So much in fact, that she can freely end the world and kill all of us whenever she wishes to." She heard a couple of people start murmuring and whispering amongst themselves. "She has tried to before, and the only thing that stopped her was her long time friend. However, she is unstable, having lost control numerous times since then. She is a danger to everyone on this planet, and if something isn't done soon, she will lose control," Amy continued. "The reason that I have gathered you here is that we need to take that power from her. She will not give it up, and someone needs to make sure that this world is safe. We need to help her, before she destroys herself and takes who knows how many people with her… I have tried to take some of this power from her, but I am not strong enough. No body on this earth is strong enough. Everyone in this room combining their power wouldn't be strong enough for us to save her," Amy lied and _convinced_. She needed these people to believe that they were doing the right thing, that they'd be helping the world, instead of helping her. "We need to gather more people to us if we are going to save her. That's why I need all of you to go out and tell everyone you know who has even the slightest magickal ability to come here, in three nights time. We need more power if we're going to stop her before she loses control. Again," Amy said. She heard everyone talking to each other, but she couldn't make out what any one of them was saying.

"What's the girl's name. Who is it who has become so powerful?" one of the males asked. "Her name is Willow Rosenburg, and she lives in Sunnydale," Amy replied.

"How did she come to have so much power and have no one notice?" someone else asked.

"She already had a good natural talent for magick, but then, due to circumstances beyond her control, her control, her lover was murdered. This sent her on a rampage after the murderer, she sucked dry the town's mystic, who provided advice to those who wanted it. Then, her mentor and friend, a watcher none the less, tried to stop her after he was imbued with the powers of a very powerful coven in England. He didn't succeed, and she sucked all of the power out of him," Amy lied, knowing that that would be enough to convince them all.

"What happened to the murderer?" Someone asked. "Did she get him?"

"Yes, and flayed him alive," Amy replied. She was sure that everyone would be convinced by that, and pleased that they walked right into that one. "Tell everyone you know of this place, and meet here again in three nights time. We need to act soon," Amy said, a smug smile spreading across her face as everyone left the room, chatting adamantly about what she had just told them.

Willow had just spent the last five to six hours telling Tara everything she knew about her life before she came back. Telling her about her parents and how she had loved her mother and how she was a natural witch. Telling her about her father and cousins and how they had tricked her into thinking she was part demon. They had been in the living room the whole time, Giles, Xander and Dawn stopping in on occasion to add pieces, and even Oz came at one time to just listen. Willow had just finished and was about to head into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee when Buffy came rushing in through the front door, carrying a limp form in her arms.

"Giles, Oz, Willow, Everyone!" Buffy shouted. Tara got out of the way as Buffy raced to the couch, carrying Michaela in her arms. Faith came in right after her, carrying another body in her arms, and she lay it down on their other couch, revealing it to be Connor.

"Oh my God," Willow heard Oz say.

"Oh my God," Willow heard another voice say. She turned to see that it was Fred, looking at the body of Connor.

"What Happened?" Oz asked anyone who was listening.

"Willow, get over here. They haven't woken up yet, and their noses have been spurting out blood at least since we woke up," she heard Buffy say. "Oh my god, what if they're dead?" Buffy started. "What if they're dead and it's my fault?"

"Buffy, they're not dead, their chests are still rising and falling," Willow heard Giles say. She bent down and had a close look at Michaela. There was blood all over her face, all of which had obviously come from her nose.

"She's been haemorrhaging, her brain is or has been bleeding," Willow said.

"Is she going to be alright?" Willow heard Oz ask her.

"I think so. Yes, I mean. Yes, I think so," Willow replied to him. She created a bright magickal glow around her index finger and moved to open Michaela's eye to see if there was any response, indicating brain activity. She was shocked however to see that Michaela's iris was an iridescent green colour. "That's not right," she said as she heard a loud thump behind her. She turned to see that both Cassia and Naomi had just dropped a large box with carvings all over it in the middle of the room. "Someone check Connor's pupils," Willow said. Fred who was sitting by Connor's side in the same position as Willow opened his eye lid and gasped.

"They're bright blue," Fred said.

"Willow, can you do anything to help them?" Giles asked her.

"I..I.. I can try," Willow stammered, the pressure getting to her. She closed her eyes and concentrated, building the energy up within her, trying to not lose control. She drew energy from within the earth as well, hoping that it would ground her. She began to feel positive about the results when she held her control as the energy kept building up. When she thought she had enough to heal Michaela, she lay opened her eyes and lay her hands on her, surprised to see a greenish glow laced with yellow coming from them. She started to push the energy inside of Michaela and visualised it starting to heal her body and fix it's organs. In a sudden rush, the energy was pushed back out of the body and straight at Willow, sending her flying back from Michaela's body and landing on the floor.

"What happened?" Wesley asked her as soon as she opened her eyes.

"There's something inside her, blocking me. Whatever it is, it's powerful," Willow replied.

"Buffy, you need to tell us what happened," Giles asked of her. The whole room became quiet as they waited for Buffy's answer.

"We went to the High school, and they were there already. We saw them in the room, there were two Syophers and a Turokhan. We came out of our hiding spot, and we saw that there were two more Turokhans there. We managed to fight them off, that was easier than I thought it would be. There were vampires around the Hellmouth, and the Syophers didn't even come near us. They were doing some kind of ritual, and I could feel it Giles. I could feel the power go through the air. There was energy swirling around the Hellmouth, and then the next minute, Michaela steps out in front of everyone and tells everyone to get back. She did something, something to protect us. I think she had some idea of what was going on. And then the next minute, Cordelia explodes into balls of energy. Then, the next thing I know is that I'm waking up on the floor of the room we were in. We all eventually woke up except for Michaela and Connor, who had blood coming out of their noses. We picked them up and came here," Buffy explained, recalling just about everything she could remember.

"And that?" Giles asked, pointing to the box that Naomi and Cassia had dumped in the middle of the living room.

"That was the only thing that the Syophers left, so, we took it," Buffy replied.

"That box might have something to do with Connor and Michaela's current condition," Wesley said.

"Yes, I agree," Giles answered. "Wesley, Willow, Fred, anyone else who wants to try, we'd best take a look at this box. Everyone else should try and help Michaela and Connor."

Amanda was glad when all of her group showed up at their regrouping point fifteen miles away from where the ambush took place. She was also glad when none of them had commando's with them. It was morning by now, and they were starting to look out of place in their black leather suits.

"How did they know? Aren't these necklaces meant to hide us from The First?" Carmen said to her.

"Maybe they didn't know it was us. Maybe they just knew that there was to be a meeting with a contact from the Coven, and that they were meant to give us the Slayer Tracking Device," Amanda said. "And then, they set up the ambush."

"But how did the American Military's O Ops know? Don't they usually operate out of the country?" Jonathon stated.

"Maybe things are worse than we thought. If the American Military has pulled it's O Ops division back to it's own soil, they must know that something's going on. And if the American Military knows, whatever is going on must be fairly significant," Amanda replied. "That's why we need to get to Sunnydale by midday, we can't afford to lose any time in capturing The Slayer."

Three hours had passed, and they had finally finished translating all that they could on the box. There were many markings that had to be looked up, which no one could identify, but they were confident that they would find out it's meaning. Fred had started feeling sick right in the middle of their research, and everyone else insisted that she go and lay down, but she was determined to see this through, and see if they could help Connor and Michaela. It wasn't until Giles and Buffy started talking did she take a rest, as her head was starting to spin.

"So, what's it say?" Buffy asked Giles.

"It was easy to translate, most of the inscriptions are in ancient Hebrew. It mainly tells us of the story of the Old ones. It also has some markings indicating that it has the ability to manipulate time, and that it will "Return what has been Lost", and that it is Only to be used by The Slayer. It also has instructions on how to use it," Giles said.

"What, you mean that this box is for me?" Buffy replied.

"I'm uncertain, but, by the way it looks, it is for either you or Faith, or both of you," Wesley replied to Buffy's question.

"So, what are we waiting for, let's use this thing. We've got nothing to lose," Faith said. "If it's for the Slayer, it's got to be good. We can use it to our advantage."

"How about we wait and find out what all those other markings say. It still may not be safe," Dawn said. "What if it talks about it being to End the Slayer line or something like that, instead of that it's for the Slayer. How do we know that?"

"Because it is said that only the Slayer is to use it, and that only she holds the capacity to use it's full potential and to 'unlock the gates of evolution', whatever that means," Willow replied. Everyone was looking at Buffy now, as Faith's viewpoint on the thing was clear.

"Okay, what do we need?" Buffy asked them.

"Only you, Faith and a drop of each of your blood, I guess," Giles said.

"You guess?" Buffy and Faith simultaneously asked.

"Well, there are two Slayers now, and it says that it needs a drop of blood of The Slayer," Giles replied. They walked over to the box and looked down at it. It was large, about two and half feet wide and long, and the same height. It was completely covered in carvings, depicting various pictures with writing underneath most of them. In the top of it was a small impression where they guessed Buffy and Faith's blood was meant to go. Buffy pulled a knife out from the back of her jeans which she still had there from the fight at the Hellmouth, and sliced a cut across her palm. She then gave the knife to Faith who did the same. They held their hands over the box and watched as their blood dripped onto the box, missing the impression. They were amazed when the blood began moving with almost a lifelike quality to it towards the impression. As soon as the drops of blood entered the impression, the box began to emit a soft blue glow. Everyone took a step back and watched as the air began to shimmer above the box. A tear in the air appeared and gradually became bigger and larger until it was large enough for a person to walk through. The strange thing was that there was nothing coming from it, no sound, no rushing of air, nothing associated with all the portals that they had seen.

"Are you game B?" Faith said to her, standing beside her in front of the portal.

"If your going, I'm going," Buffy replied.

"Right then," Faith replied before rushing forward into the portal, Buffy on her heels.

Fred watched as the portal closed behind the two Slayers, and she felt her world spin. She noticed that there was blood coming out of her nose right before she collapsed onto the ground.

__

Buffy and Faith were standing on the top of a hill, in the middle of a desert. Below them, they could see thousands of bodies, humanoid in shape, but with black skin, large fangs, and yellow eyes, fighting. Buffy realised that it was a war, they had come into the middle of a war. She squinted her eyes, trying to get a closer look, and she was shocked when it became almost like she was standing right in the middle of the fighting. She relaxed her eyes, and her vision returned to normal. For the moment, she and Faith were safe, nothing had noticed them on top of the hill. In a sudden rush, bodies were racing past them both, these ones also humanoid in form, but their skin appeared to be scales. They were running right past Faith and Buffy over the hill, down to the battle below. Buffy saw one coming straight at her, and went to move out of the way, but the creature passed right through her.

"We're ghosts," Faith said. "What is this?" she also asked.

"Giles said that the box had something to do with time, so maybe this is history?" Buffy suggested. Suddenly, the bodies around them began to fade, and shimmer away. In a couple of moments, they were standing in the middle of a sea of dead bodies, some of the forms of which she recognised as the ones that had just been fighting. In front of them, they could see a large structure, with a symbol of an upside down triangle enclosed in a circle, which was enclosed in an upright triangle. There was a large demonic form, which must have been metres high, walking through what seemed to be a portal next to the structure. The world around them shimmered again, and the next thing they knew, they were standing in the middle of a clearing, with naked, human like forms around them.

"Cavemen," Faith said. They saw in the distance another large demonic form similar to the one they had seen before, and they saw a beam of energy go shooting from it to one of the humans that were surrounding them, morphing it's features and turning it into something that resembled a Turokhan.

"I know this," Buffy said. "This is how the first Vampires were made, Giles told me about it once." They watched, as the First Vampire ran around, biting and draining the life out of the humans around it.

The world shimmered again, and they were in a cave, with a girl chained to the wall and three men with large canes chanting in a semicircle around the girl. They watched as a large dark shadow emerged from a box they had in the middle of the floor and entered the girl. Buffy and Faith watched as the girl tried to fight against it, but failed.

"The First Slayer," Faith said quietly.

"They forced the spirit of the demon inside of her," Buffy said. They watched the life of The First Slayer, as she walked the earth, fighting against the Turokhan, with greater ease than Buffy and Faith had managed. They watched as she died, and another Slayer was chosen. They watched the line of the Slayers, and how easily they could be killed. They watched as the Turokhan evolved into the modern vampire as their blood became more diluted with that of the humans. They watched, as countless Slayers had their lives taken away in combat. They could see every one of the members of the Slayer line in front of them.

Next, their world shifted again. This time, they were standing in the middle of a ruined city, traces of civilisation long gone, the sky overhead blackened with clouds darker than Buffy had ever seen. The Clouds were almost black. Rubble was scattered everywhere, and there was small traces of dying vegetation. Buffy and Faith waited until something was to happen, for whatever it was that they were meant to see, happen, but nothing did.

"What's the go here? I thought this was to do with history?" Faith said.

"Maybe it's not history. Maybe it's the future," Buffy said.

"Yeah, like it's showing us what we've got to stop?" Faith said. They decided to walk. They didn't get far, when they managed to see a piece of paper on the ground, almost in pieces, and faded so much that it was hard to read the ink. They noticed that it was a newspaper, and that the heading said The Boston Herald._ They looked down at the main picture on the front page, and they immediately recognised it as the symbol from the structure they had seen next to the portal and the large demon._

"It's the symbol for The First," a voice said behind them. Both Buffy and Faith spun around to see an image of someone who greatly resembled Michaela standing before them.

"Michaela? What are you doing here?" Buffy asked her.

"There's not enough power. You need more power. My time has been. We have left. You do not wish us to return," the image of Michaela said. "The world and demons have evolved, yet the Slayer hasn't. It's time to begin your journey," she said before she just disappeared in an instant.

The world around them shimmered again, and this time they were standing in the middle of what seemed to be a large building. It was filled with people, most of which were fighting. They both heard a familiar voice behind them, and they turned around and looked through a doorway. They were surprised when they saw both Spike and Willow talking.

"How could they…" Spike started. "Why do all the women I've met so far, since this has all happened possess the ability to send me face first into the ground?" Spike said.

"It's easy," Willow replied. "They're all Slayers." There was a slight pause as Spike took in what Willow had just said.

"They're all slayers?" Spike repeated.

"Yeah. God, where have you been for the last year and a half?" Willow replied casually. Spike looked to see that the girl who had been escorting him walk directly up to Willow.

"Willow, it's Amy," was all she said.

"Okay, I'm on it," Willow replied before turning away and walking directly into the portal, just as if she was walking through an ordinary doorway.

"Well why the hell didn't we use a portal in the first place?" Spike exclaimed. The girl who had been guarding him looked over her shoulder.

"Because they're dangerous now. They collapse very easily because the fabric of reality has been altered. You may end up opening up a portal, and then once you step through, it may collapse and there'll be little pieces of you in a thousand dimensions. Only the powerful witches can use them now," she said.

"So, how come you opened the portal here?" Spike asked.

"Like I said, only the most powerful witches even dare to use portals," the girl replied.

"Skye, come on, we've got things to do," another girl said who had come through the portal. (Taken from Previous Chapter, Spike's part)

They watched as both of the women left the room, leaving Spike there alone. They entered the room and looked at him with his back turned to them.

"When do you think this is?" Faith asked.

"I don't know, the not too distant future?" Buffy replied. They decided to explore the complex before their next change of scenery took place. They just turned around when they heard two thumps behind them. They turned around to see the last thing they had expected: themselves. Their other selves had come through the portal and landed hard on the ground. They watched as their alter egos began to talk.

"We can't win this fight B. The First's too powerful, you saw exactly what I did. There was too many vamps, not even our combined resources could handle them," Faith's alter ego said.

"Then we get more resources. We go out, find more Slayers. There's got to be a good hundred more hiding underground somewhere," Buffy's alter ego replied. "We'll come up with something, we always do."

"But we aren't facing The First's full legions every day B, well, except for the last three years anyway," Faith's alter ego said. "We're missing something, we can't keep this up. We're not strong enough."

They never got to see any more when their scenery changed again, and they were standing in the middle of a battlefield with bodies lying all over the ground. Buffy could see that they were human bodies, and when she had a closer look, she almost collapsed to the ground. Right in front of her, was a body without a head. The head had been chopped off and had rolled five feet away. She had seen the face of the head, and she recognised it as Dawn's. She looked around her, there were hundreds of bodies lying on the ground, most of them young girls. They heard a noise behind them, and they turned to see an image of Faith and Angelus fighting.

"Oh my god," Faith and Buffy managed to say simultaneously. They heard another noise behind them, and they turned to see an image of Buffy, surrounded in vampires, dust filling the air as she twirled around, dusting anything that came near her, going faster and using strength and speed that neither Slayer thought possible. They were now standing in the middle of the battlefield, and they saw Tara fall. Moments later, they saw an image of Willow rising up, floating off of the ground, power radiating off of her.

"No! Don't do this!" they both saw Buffy's alter ego scream. They watched as energy radiated off of Willow, swirling black and red energy going towards the hoards of vampires and turning them to dust. They watched, as a spirit entered Willow's body, and she fell to the ground convulsing. They saw Cordelia approach Willow.

"The First's inside of her, it's taking over her body," Cordelia shouted out to the remaining survivors and Buffy and Faith. They watched as Cordelia's body immediately disappeared and a large blue ball of light was left in her presence. The ball went down and enveloped Willow's body, but was pushed back and destroyed. They watched as Willow's body stopped convulsing and she stood up, and red and black swirling energy came out from her and killed everyone around them except Buffy's alter ego. Both Buffy and Faith watched as Buffy's alter ego turned around, a ghast look on her face at the dead bodies around her. They watched, as Buffy's grip on her sword tightened, and she spun around, accurately and swiftly swinging her sword into motion as she approached Willow's former body.

"No one's left to bring you back this time," Willow's body said as it unleashed hoards of energy at Buffy's alter ego. (Last part taken from Buffy's Dream of the future in Chapter 21-Set in Motion)

"It isn't enough," a voice said behind them. They spun around to see the image of what looked like Michaela standing behind them again. "Be warned, bear arms when you set out on this journey. Your enemy is the key. Use it to unlock the gates of evolution. Fight for it." With that, the image that resembled Michaela disappeared.

The world around Buffy and Faith shifted again. They were now standing in the middle of Sunnydale. When they looked down the middle of main street however, they could see an transparent image of a large structure in the middle of the desert.

Both Buffy and Faith woke up in the middle of the Summer's living room, with everyone standing around them. Immediately, Buffy and Faith got up. Buffy, still with the image of Dawn's headless body on the ground, ran to her to hug her, but unusually, Dawn started backing off.

"Dawn," Buffy said as she went to hug Dawn, but instead passed right through her and fell to the floor.

"Dawn?" Xander asked. He moved towards her and waved his hand through her, expecting it to stop and meet solid flesh.

"It's not Dawn," Giles said in a low voice.

"Well, if it's not Dawn, who is it?" Gunn asked.

"The First," both Faith and Oz replied at the same time.

"There is nothing you can do to fight against me. Your box here of tricks is useless," the image of Dawn said. "Your sister is gone. The Key is _Mine_," it said before disappearing in a flash.

Lindsey McDonald approached the building with Caelecae behind him. This was the place where they had been told to bring her so that she could meet with The Senior Partners and discuss whatever it was that their purpose for bringing her back was. He knew that it was tied to The First Evil, as the Syopher emerged with Caelecae from the building above the Hellmouth, as he was told was going to happen. They entered the small shack, which didn't have anything in it except a bed. Lindsey watched as Caelecae stepped into the middle of the room and closed her eyes. The shack began to shake as a portal opened up and engulfed her whole, leaving no trace of her brief existence on the earth in the last couple of million years.

If you're wondering when Dawn 'died'. She didn't 'die'. She was reverted back into the form of the Key. Remember in the chapter when there was a large shockwave that sent everyone haywire? There was a bit about Dawn glowing green and feeling like she was turning back into the key. Well, she actually did turn back into the Key. Everything that's had dawn in it from there has actually been "The First". I had planned it that way, so it would be a big shock because no one (the readers) wouldn't have realised that Dawn actually turned back into the key until then.

Nifty eh?

Tell us what you think plz.

****

Next Chatper… Haven't thought of the name yet. Will try to get it up soon. Not tonight tho as it's 1:45 in the morning.


	30. Chapter 29 Steps Towards Evolution

This is a killer of a chapter, literally. Saying that, I will put this warning up

WARNING: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATHS OCCUR IN THIS CHAPTER

The Bold, Underlined and Italicised word represents the 100,000th word in this story, according to MS Word's word counter. That doesn't include all these author's notes i put up because I have one large file at home, and then save each chapter as HTML and put the Author's notes on.

Don't worry too much about the characters in Amanda's group. Just know that they are in amanda's group. Don't even have to remember their names, cause I just made up names so that I could distinguish between them as individuals.

Take notice of the Title of this chapter… I've done something that I think is pretty cool.

EVERYTHING that happens in this chapter is about taking steps towards something evolving. Eg,if there's a paragraph about Bumbo the Donkey, that means that that Paragraph is about Bumbo the Donkey evolving somehow, although, you may not believe me when you get to the end of this chapter.

****

Chapter 29

Steps Towards Evolution

Faith watched as Buffy collapsed to the floor, her legs having given out from underneath her.

"Dawn's gone," she was repeating over and over again. She looked around to see other members of the Scooby Gang with absolutely shocked and confused expressions on their faces.

"How could this have happened?" he heard Xander ask. "We've been with her the whole time." No one said anything as the members of the Scooby Gang came to terms with what they had just witnessed. There was a long and very awkward silence in the room for those who had not been around the Scooby Gang for a long enough time to get to know any of them.

"S, s, she's not totally gone, is she?" a voice crept up from the corner of the room. Faith turned to see that it was Tara who was the owner of the voice. "I, I mean, Willow told me that s, she's made of energy?" she said, not sounding sure of herself at all.

"Yes, that's right Tara. She's the Key, made of a matrix of energy which unlocks the gates between dimensions," Giles replied.

"a,a,and that can't be destroyed, right? And, Dawn doesn't have to be d, dead for The First to b be-come her, she j-just doesn't have to be Dawn any more, right?"

"I see what she's saying. We can get her back as long as the Key exists, Dawn can exist. We can bring Dawn back," Wesley said. "The monks created her, surely we can do the same thing."

"Like, magick, re-create Dawn," Xander said. "Well then, what are we waiting for, we need to go and get ourselves a key." Xander, Willow and Giles automatically started moving towards the weapons chest.

"It won't be enough," Buffy said softly from the floor. Everyone, including Oz turned to her. Buffy was on the floor, her eyes distant and staring into space. "No matter what we send, it won't be enough," Buffy said again, looking to Faith.

"What do you mean?" Giles said.

"We saw it, Giles, the future. No matter what we send at them, it won't be enough," Buffy said, her voice and eyes still distant.

"There were hundreds of Slayers G-Man, all of them activated at the same time, and all of them were dead," Faith said, looking between Willow and Giles. "We saw her, Michaela," Faith said while nodding towards the limp body of Michaela on the couch. "Except it wasn't her. She had the same freaky eyes, and dark green hair. She told us that it was time for the Slayer to evolve, and that our enemy was the key."

"We saw an encampment for Slayers, and we saw ourselves in the future. There were hundreds of Slayers training, and we, us in the future, we even said it wasn't enough," Buffy said. "We saw Spike and Willow there too," Buffy started.

"You don't know if any of this is true. It might be in riddles, in metaphors. Most of these things usually…" Giles started.

"It's all true," a voice said from the kitchen doorway. Everyone turned and looked to see one of the last people they expected to see standing there. "Been there myself. Seen almost everything they've said with my own two eyes, and I can tell you what, it's an ugly future," Spike said.

"Spike?" a chorus of voices said.

"The one and only," Spike replied. "It's a long story, but I ended up living in the future for a while," Spike said. "Saw it all. I even saw these two. When they were transfixed, watching themselves, I could see a blur, lookin a lot like of each of them. Then, next thing you know, poof, I'm back here again, standing in the Summers Kitchen," Spike explained.

"That's what it must have meant," Giles said. Everyone turned and looked to him. "The box, it said that it would 'return what was lost'. I thought it would be a weapon of some kind, hmmph," Giles said.

"Well it's good to know you're so glad to see me Rupert," Spike said to him.

"We need to go to Main Street," Buffy said. Buffy got up off of the floor and headed towards the weapons chest, Faith following behind her. Faith armed herself with a long sword and her favourite choice, double knives, one on the inside of her jeans on each hip. "Only we go," Buffy said to everyone else, who was looking at them now. They started for the door, but before they got there, everyone turned to the limp bodies of Michaela, Connor and Fred, as Fred's body started convulsing.

"Why is Fred on the ground? Why's she unconscious?" Faith demanded.

"While you were gone, she collapsed," Cassia answered her as people started rushing to her side. Buffy and Faith approached the group of people who were now surrounding her, when they saw them all go flying back. Before her, Faith saw the body of Fred get up off of the ground and stand up in the middle of the room, but it wasn't Fred at all. Staring back at them were pale iridescent blue eyes. Her hair colour had changed to match her eyes, and her skin had a light blue tinge to it. The people who had been thrown back were now standing, everyone forming a loose circle around Fred. They watched, as Fred looked at each one of them, taking them in, and then down at her hands.

"Humans," she said in a soft, yet strong voice. Everyone turned as there was a groan from the other side of the room as Connor sat up.

"What happened?" he asked, before he took in the sight before him.

"That one is not human. That one I could not enter. That one is protected," the body of Fred said. At the same moment, the body of Michaela sat up off of the couch. It too looked like Fred's body, except where Fred's body was blue, Michaela's was green. Faith watched as the two looked at each other and sized each other up.

"Illyria," Michaela's body said while looking at Fred.

"Inanna," Fred's body said while looking at Michaela. Faith saw them look around at the ring of people that was surrounding them.

"What are you? Why have you taken over their bodies?" Wesley said from the ring.

"We are not meant to be here," Illyria said. "Not in this time."

"Yet we are," Inanna said to her. Faith could feel the uneasy atmosphere in the room, no one knew what to do, not any of them, and not the two things inside Fred and Michaela's bodies. Faith didn't risk attacking them, in case they weren't the enemy. Beside her, she saw a little blue ball of energy appear, and then another, and then another and another. Soon, there was a rough outline of a blue person standing within the room. Very quickly, skin formed over the top of it to reveal it to be Cordelia. Faith turned back to everyone else and noticed that they were looking at Cordelia, including whatever was inside Fred and Michaela's bodies.

"Oh my God," Cordelia said at her first opportunity to speak. "Everyone get away," she instructed. At once, Faith saw everyone take a step back from Michaela and Fred. The Potentials taking a couple more steps back than everyone else.

"Get out of their bodies," Buffy said, while closing the gap between herself and them. Xander had moved over to the weapons chest and was holding a sword. On Buffy's glance, he threw the sword over to her. Buffy caught it and pointed it in the direction of Fred and Michaela's bodies.

"You seek us to leave these corpses? Why?" Illyria asked of Buffy, looking straight at her.

"Because we care about them," Oz said from the ring, stepping up next to Buffy. The awkward silence returned as the entities inhabiting Fred and Michaela's bodies tried to grasp the concept.

"This is a human concept? Yes? Not wanting to see others come to harm?" Inanna asked, but no one replied. For the first time, Cordelia actually did something, stepping up to Buffy.

"This is not your time," Cordelia started.

"That much is obvious," Illyria replied.

"Humans dominate this world now. Leave and sleep until their time has ended," Cordelia said. Faith understood what she was trying to do. She was trying to get whatever was inside their bodies to leave.

"We were told their time _is_ ending, that the reason for our awakening," Illyria replied. At that statement, Faith drew her knife that she always held in the back of her pants these days. Faith moved around them so that she was standing behind both Fred and Michaela, and Buffy in front. Buffy and Faith began to circle the pair, ready to strike.

"You are both warriors?" Inanna asked.

"Yes," Faith answered. Faith saw the body of Michaela turn and look at her.

"Then I suggest that you meet your end on the battlefields fighting for your race, not here," the thing inside Michaela's body said to her.

"Or we could just end your lives," Buffy said. Faith saw Buffy swing the sword down towards the pair.

"Buffy, No!" Cordelia almost shouted. Faith took Buffy's lead swung into action. Faith jabbed her knife towards Fred's midgut, but she easily stepped out of the way. Faith went to slash at Fred's body where her head was, but she easily got up and moved out of the way. A strong hand gripped Faith's wrist, and she saw that it was Fred's. Fred twisted Faith's wrist around, making her drop her knife. Fred's other hand moved and gripped Faith under the neck, lifting her off the ground.

"Not very impressive," Faith heard out of Fred's lips before she was flung backwards, flying across the house, landing at the base of the stairs and rolling into the dining room, hitting the base of the table. Faith looked up to see that Spike had entered the fight, and that Fred's body threw him _through_ the ceiling of the living room. She saw Buffy get pushed to the ground and flung away like a matchstick. Faith saw Fred's body walk up to Cordelia.

"Educate your warriors. It must be only luck that has kept the humans in this world so long," Fred's body said to her. Faith got up off of the dining room floor and looked to the bodies of Fred and Michaela, who were now heading for the doorway. She saw Cordelia put her hand up to her, signalling to Faith not to attack them and let them go. Before they got to the doorway however, they were stopped by a wall of shimmering air. Faith watched, as both Fred and Michaela turned around.

"So there is one of you possesses power," Michaela's body said. Faith looked to see that Willow's eyes and hair had turned completely black.

"We will allow you to live, your race needs to have some chance of survival," Fred's body said before turning around and walking up to the place where the invisible wall had stopped her before. She stepped up to it, and the air began to lightly shimmer, and Fred and Michaela stepped right through the barrier, a loud cracking sound resonating through the house as they did so. Faith looked over to Buffy, who was getting up off of the ground. She saw Spike coming down the stairs, **_ready_** to enter the fight again, if their assailants were here. After everyone had recovered, they all looked at Cordelia.

"What are they?" Wesley asked her. Cordelia just looked around and took in a breath.

"How do we get them out of their bodies?" both Oz and Gunn asked. Cordelia looked to them, before she started to explain.

"I'm sorry, but there is no way to get them back," Cordelia said. "Both Fred and Michaela's bodies have been permanently altered, we couldn't get them back even if we wanted to."

"But, we can get _them _back, can't we. Give them a new body? Their souls must be out there somewhere," Gunn said.

"No, they're not," Cordelia simply replied. "Their souls were burned in the fires of resurrection as soon as they died, there is nothing left of them, their souls have been stripped clean and moved into other beings," Cordelia said, trying not to hurt Oz, or anyone else in her explanation. Faith could tell that she was lying about their souls going to resurrection, she knew that they were gone, permanently. There was a long silence in the room as everyone digested the information.

"There are those of you in the room who will know the majority of what I am saying, and there are those of you who will be hearing this for the first time. Whatever category you fit into however, listen to me, as you will hear something you haven't heard before," Cordelia said, while looking around the room. "A couple of million years ago, the world was a very different place. Demons ruled, this was their world. The demons were not like we know them today, they were a lot more powerful. The emergence of humans was much, much earlier than any historians or scientists have predicted so far. Humans emerged in the middle of the time of the demons. Their was a hierarchy to the world of demons. There were those which were powerful, and that could manipulate the very planes of existence, alter time and create portals with ease. These were known as The Old Ones. They each had their own armies, some made of a variety of creatures, some made of one or two kinds. These armies were occasionally sent against armies of other Old Ones, however their main purpose was to defend this world from being occupied by a large number of beings from other worlds, as, at those times, the walls between worlds were much thinner than they are now. The common belief was that The Old Ones weren't friendly towards each other, however, if there was a common cause, they would unite and defend their world," Cordelia began to explain.

"One of The Old Ones infused it's own spirit with that of a human, thus creating the first vampire, but it was very different from the vampires of today, and even the Turokhan, although they looked something like them. The other Old Ones saw that this was a very useful follower for their armies, as the human body is easy to manipulate, plus given the strength of a demon. They created legions of these vampires by transmitting a part of their spirit into one human, and then watching the condition spread to other humans, via the vampire feeding, and it's childe feeding, you get the point.

Then, The Old Ones were forced out by unknown circumstances, not even the Powers That Be, know why. Some of The Old Ones put their armies into small dimensions, where time was very slow or virtually non existent, so that their armies may survive until the day that The Old Ones return to this world. The Powers do know that The Old Ones were forced out by something to do with the strengthening of the walls between worlds by The Key. At that point in time, The Key was closer to a living entity than it has been in eons, save for these last few years, obviously. It had thought and could choose it's actions, and like The First Evil, it was everywhere, and inside everything," Cordelia explained to everyone.

"After The Old Ones had left, the remaining armies of vampires turned to warfare, giving into their more human nature and fighting against each other in their god's name, as that is what most of the vampires believed The Old Ones to be; gods. They mostly wiped each other out, as well as a large number of the species of demons on the face of the earth. With these gone, the humans started to multiply and spread very quickly, but a few vampires had set out to keep the numbers of humans to a bare minimum, and The Slayer was created by humans, to defend themselves against the remaining vampires," Cordelia stated. "Now, onto the part regarding Fred and Michaela," Cordelia started again. "A spirit of The Old Ones has entered each of their bodies, summoned by The First. That is why there is no way to get them back, and that is why they are so powerful."

"Oh lord," Giles exclaimed quietly, taking off his glasses and cleaning them. Wesley slowly made his way over to the couch and sat down. Everyone else just stood looking at Cordelia. Faith tried to take it all in. She had just gone up against one of the original demons that had walked the planet.

"Hmmph," Faith let out. "Not everyone can say they've fought against an Old One."

"And got their asses layed out to them," Spike finished for her.

"How come they entered Fred, and not Connor. Connor was showing all of the symptoms that Michaela was, but he didn't get one of them inside him," Xander pointed out. Everyone stopped and thought about it, realising it for the first time.

"I don't actually know, it must have something to do with Connor's, uniqueness," Cordelia said.

"But why Fred? Why did it enter Fred?" Gunn asked.

"Was she close to Connor a lot of the time? Maybe it's spirit was inside Connor, but it couldn't take up residence. I don't know," Cordelia replied.

"But Faith carried him from the High School back to here, how come it didn't enter her?" Cassia asked.

"Maybe it's something to do with Faith's uniqueness in being a Slayer, maybe they can't enter a Slayer. I honestly don't know why they chose Fred or Michaela," Cordelia replied.

"How do we stop them?" Buffy asked, stopping the questions flying at Cordelia. Faith saw her look around at the room, not sure whether to continue or not.

"For now, we don't. They're some of the least of our problems," Cordelia said.

"What, there's something worse?" Naomi said, who was now standing next to Oz, both of them trying to comfort each other after Michaela's death.

"That was only two of them, but there were three summoned," Cordelia said.

"What, so someone else is going to be killed off?" Brett said, speaking for the first time.

"No, it has already been summoned and given a form. It was the only one meant to be summoned, the other two, Inanna and Illyria, who were here, were not meant to come through. The First has recruited the other one, Caelecae, and she is in the process of making a deal with Wolfram and Hart," Cordelia said. "We believe that it is to use the magicians of Wolfram and Hart to bring her army back to these planes of existence, but we're not entirely sure about that," Cordelia said. "For the time being, Illyria and Inanna are a third party. They're not on anyone's side, except themselves. They will do what they need to in order to ensure their survival," Cordelia said. There was a long pause as everyone took in this information. There was now another thing that they needed to fight against, and this thing had an army that was already formed at it's disposal.

"Well it was nice knowing you all. I'm off to enjoy what's left of my short un-dead life," Spike said while heading towards the door.

"You can't leave now," Wesley said from the couch. "We need all the good fighters we can get, even if they are vampires."

"And, you're forgetting the little issue of it being daytime," Xander said. Faith saw Spike standing next to the door and looking at Xander. He opened the door and stuck his arm out into the sunlight.

"Oh, oh, it burns so much," Spike said in a sarcastic voice. Everyone in the room was astonished when he pulled his arm back in and it wasn't smoking. "Sorry watcher. I've seen the future, and if I stick with you lot, I'm going to go down fighting. And, yeah, that isn't a bad way to go out, and will probably be the way I will go out, it won't be on my terms. I won't be fighting who I want to fight, I won't be killing who I want to kill. I've seen what's going to happen, and I'm not going to go down living like that," Spike said before he walked out of the door, into the sunlight.

"Don't worry, he'll be back," Cordelia said. "Now, unfortunately, I have to leave," Cordelia said, dropping the bombshell on everyone.

"What!? Why?" Giles exclaimed.

"Don't worry, I will be back. I just have to go and organise us some help," Cordelia said. Before she left, she looked at both Buffy and Faith. "Buffy, Faith, I believe you have to get to Main Street," Cordelia said before she disappeared. The room was left in utter silence after Cordelia left, no one moving, no one speaking, and not even making a sound. Finally, it was Buffy who broke the silence. She moved over to the weapons chest, and began to arm herself. Faith realised that Buffy was going to go to Main Street, and that she'd better follow suit if they were going to find out what their journey over time had been all about. By the time Faith was done, Buffy was still going, putting weapons into every pocket, and attaching them to her body however she could.

"Um, Buffy, it's the middle of the day. I think someone's going to notice a blonde haired girl walking down the street looking like a one man army," Faith said.

"Let them," Buffy replied. "They said our journey, to arm ourselves, we'll have to fight for whatever we're going to get. By my reasoning, we go, we do this, then we go and try and get Dawn, or The Key, back." Faith could understand Buffy's logic, she was only in this to get Dawn, but she could see defeat in Buffy's eyes, like she was going out to die.

"B, hey, we're going to get through this. We'll go do this thing, we'll get Dawn back, then we'll go and kick the ass of all the legions of hell that are coming after us, then we'll live happily ever after on opposite sides of the world," Faith said. She still knew that Buffy hated her some for what she had done to her, but she wasn't going to go out and face God knows what with a Slayer with a death wish, it was a sure-fire way for them both to get killed if one of them already wanted to die. "I need you in this B. I would say that we can grieve for her later, but we won't have to because we're going to get her back." She actually saw Buffy's resolve return, only a little bit, but it was enough to start a chain of emotional events within Buffy that would get her into gear to fight by the time they got there. Faith had understood that early on in her life, that it only took a small push and you would automatically do the rest. Faith grabbed a couple of extra weapons and found somewhere to sling them onto herself.

"Giles, Willow, Xander, you're with us. Half of the rest of you, start researching ways to bring Dawn back, the rest of you start researching these old dudes or whoever they are," Faith said as Buffy began walking towards the door.

Amanda and her team were just arriving in Sunnydale by car from Los Angeles. They had split themselves up between three cars, each one carrying two people and equipment, mainly weapons and tracking equipment.

"Get on the phone and tell the others that we're going straight to the magick shop for a sleeping spell to transport the Slayer back to the coven once we get her," Amanda said to Carmen, who was in the car with her. After Carmen had done that, she pulled out the UBD from the glove box and looked for the magick shop.

"Here, it's on Main Street. Take the next left," Carmen told Amanda. They made their way to Main Street, where they quickly found the Magick Box. Amanda parked the car and got out, waiting for everyone else to find a car park. She looked down at her body, they were all still dressed in their favourable black leather suits, but she was sure that no one would pay much attention to them, as they were now on the Hellmouth, where the people didn't even know what was going on under their noses. She was reassured in the fact when she saw two women up ahead, one with a greenish tinge to her skin with green hair, the other with blue.

"Hmmph, demons can walk the street here and no one cares," Amanda said to herself quietly. She watched the two women as they walked past them. She had a really strange feeling about both of them, they definitely weren't human, but she could sense something else, they weren't demon either. She listened with her normal senses, and she couldn't hear anything as they walked. She closed her eyes and let her senses expand and sensitise, and she could only hear the softest whisper from them as they walked. Whatever they were, it didn't concern her. They weren't here to fight, only to capture the means by which they would fight. Derrick, Sandra, Jonathon and Michael had all met up with herself and Carmen now, and they made their way into the Magick Shop. Amanda could see a young woman behind the counter, and approached her.

"Hello, I would like to speak to the management of this place. It's regarding a very important and powerful spell we will require from you," Amanda said to the woman.

"I'm sorry, The Management would be Anya, and she's not here at the moment, she's been out of the country for the last couple of weeks, seeing friends apparently, or organising something, I'm not too sure," the young girl replied. "Maybe I can help you."

"Okay, this is what we need…" Amanda said.

Angelus was standing on top of what had become his home for the last couple of weeks. It was here where his army was being created, for The First. With it, they would create slaves of the humans, and they wouldn't have to worry about them any longer. The world would belong to the vampires, as it should. Next to him, the image of Buffy Summers appeared.

"Hello my darling Angelus," it said. "I have another task for you."

"And what would that be? It had better be good. I'm sick of just sitting and waiting," Angelus replied.

"Oh, you will have to sit and wait a bit longer…" The First started. "But I need our army to be doing something in the process… Speaking of which, how many do we have following our cause now?" The First asked.

"About five-hundred," Angelus replied.

"Good, because in two nights time, I want that to be one thousand," The First replied. "Go out tonight, get every vampire under your command to start turning as many people as they can," The First said. "When our number reaches ten-thousand, we will take this city for ourselves."

"What about the government, they know about us. If their largest city on the West Coast is taken over by vampires, I'm sure they'll do something to try and stop us," Angelus replied.

"Don't worry, I have Wolfram and Hart attending to that matter. But that's why, in the day time, I need you and your army to begin to create shelters underground, away from the Sunlight, where you can protect yourselves without having to worry about that," The First said.

"I think we can do that," Angel said.

"I need one more thing though. The shelters must protect you from the human's bombs."

Riley Finn was sitting in a field headquarters, it having been called in once his team had notified their superiors of the situation they had gotten themselves into the previous night.

"It's ingenious. Why didn't we ever think of anything like this ourselves. Who could have the technology, let alone the budget, to pull something like this off?" the professor in front of him was saying, while looking at the gun and the clip from it that the woman had given to Riley. Riley and most of the other members of his team were interested in finding out about the newly discovered form of weaponry against the vampires.

"I'm guessing The Watchers Council," one of his team members replied. They're the experts a fighting these things, and they probably have access to the technology and the funding to make something like this.

"But those people definitely weren't from the Council," another one of his team members said.

"No, they weren't," Riley agreed. "To be honest, we don't know who they were or what they were doing. But it was obvious that they weren't completely human. They had a weird colour to their eyes, and they move faster than anything I've ever seen."

"Do you think they're to be trusted?" Riley's superior asked him.

"I honestly don't know," Riley replied.

Giles was trying to reason through it all. There were spirits of The Old Ones inhabiting the bodies of two people he had come to know a little of over the last few days. Other people however knew them better, and had come to love them. He was running one name in particular through his head, after Xander had asked him if he knew anything about either Illyria, Caelecae, and Inanna. He knew something of Inanna the goddess worshiped by early man. It was another name for Gaia, the nature goddess, the mother of all. He thought that there must definitely be some kind of correlation between the two, or even that the being he had seen not twenty minutes ago was what early man had worshipped.

"Inanna is the name of an early goddess to appear in the early histories of man. She was a nature god, the mother of all, ruler of the stars, planets, water and light, and she symbolised the destruction of the indestructible. Her essence is still invoked in spells today, especially to do with nature. It would make some sense that Buffy and Faith saw the image of her in their journey, as she is the god of nature, and nature is involved in evolution," Giles explained mostly to Xander, but to everyone else, who was listening as well. "At least, that would explain the green hair."

Faith, Willow, Giles, Xander and Buffy were walking towards Main Street, getting weird looks from everyone who they crossed paths with. Faith didn't blame them. She looked to Buffy, who was carrying a large axe in her hand, had two swords strapped in an X shape on her back, a large knife at each hip, a smaller one tucked into the back of her jeans, and at least one stake in each pocket. Faith had a little less weaponry on her, with one sword strapped to her back, her two knives at each hip, like Buffy, her knife that she kept with her just about wherever she went, and a stake in her hand. Xander, Giles and Willow weren't carrying anything, as they were all sure that Buffy and Faith would be the only ones doing the fighting. They had gone over it with Giles while they were walking, their transparent overlay that they saw on their journey usually always symbolises something that is in another dimension, or a parallel time. They were sure that once they got to Main Street, something would present itself, so that Buffy and Faith could go to wherever they were meant to go. Willow and Giles were there to help them work it out if it wasn't so obvious, as Faith knew that they both weren't the best in the world at figuring out things like that. Faith had brought Xander along because it seemed like the right thing to do. Although everything wasn't good between them, this wasn't about her and her feelings or her personal situation with everyone in the Scooby Gang, this was about something far bigger than that.

Buffy just felt empty and numb, and there wasn't much else inside of her. She had felt like this far too many times in her life; after she had sent Angel to Hell; after her mother died; and the whole period after her resurrection. She knew this feeling inside out. However, this time, there was a small amount of hope that they would be able to bring Dawn back. This time, she didn't have to tell all the voices in her head flying around that there was hope that one of them was coming back, to be quiet. She didn't have to tell herself that she was just being crazy, hoping that Dawn would come back, because there was a possibility that she would. Dawn still existed, and beside her was the most powerful witch she had ever seen, even though she had a very hard time controlling her power, she was still extremely powerful. Those two factors alone would have to count for something. Buffy knew that she would fight until her last breath for whatever they had to go through, to evolve. That fact would keep her going towards Dawn. As long as there was a chance to save the last member of her family, she would fight. She knew that she had to clear her head, if there was a fight coming up. She knew that she had to be at her full potential. Common sense told her that if they were going to somewhere, or that there was something that was going to change them, that they would have to fight the hardest they had ever fought in their lives to get it, nothing good comes easily.

Buffy could hear commotion up ahead as they came nearer to Main Street. They were in a street that intersected with Main Street about two hundred metres further ahead. She could see people running and screaming, and a large amount of leaves and paper being blown about.

"Well, looks like this is the place. You ready B?," Faith said

"Ready as I need to be," Buffy replied before starting off at a run towards the street. Faith started to follow, and she could hear that Giles, Willow and Xander weren't too far behind. When she got to Main Street, she turned onto it into the opposite direction that the people were running and the papers were flying. She looked ahead, and she almost stopped dead in her tracks. She moved off of the sidewalk so her view wouldn't be obstructed by anything. There was a large square of shimmering air in the middle of the street, about two stories high, and spanning the width of the street. Past it, she could see a dark sky, and a large structure standing in the middle of the image, the same one that they had seen in their journey. In front of what Buffy guessed must be a rather large portal, stood a figure with green hair, looking in through the portal. Buffy felt Faith come to a stop beside her, and everyone else stand beside them. The figure in front of the portal turned around, revealing it to be Michaela, or as Buffy had learnt, Inanna.

"Shit, I hope we don't have to fight her," Buffy heard Faith say beside her.

Amanda had turned and watched what was happening outside the Magick Shop as soon as the commotion had started. She had watched the same woman with green hair and eyes who she had seen earlier stand in the middle of the street, cars swerving not to hit her, open a rather large portal to god knows where. It was at that point that she stopped paying attention to what was going on, as she had seen the blonde slayer go past the window, armed to the teeth, and then the brunette slayer not too far behind her. She immediately turned to her team.

"The Slayer is out there, we need to act now. It will be messy out there, it looks like we'll be walking into the middle of something big. Do not kill her, the coven needs her alive," Amanda said.

"What of the other Slayer, the blonde one?" Jonathon asked.

"Keep her busy, but do not kill her, we want Faith. The other Slayer is useless to us," Amanda replied.

Buffy was looking directly at Inanna, who must have been at least fifty metres away. She watched as Inanna looked at them, and then tilted her head onto the side.

"I can see in you that you are not here fight against me. You understand your time for evolution is long overdue," Inanna said. "You come here, seeking to advance yourself further, by using the gates of evolution, portal the land where I house my armies," Inanna said, her voice reaching them as though she was speaking right into her ear, not fifty metres away, shouting over the distance and the wind.

"Ingenious," Giles says. "She put her army in land where evolution must occur rapidly. Her army would be well surpassed anything in this world by the time she would have come back, being now, of course."

"Thanks for the tip," Buffy said.

"You seek this in order to save your race?" Inanna posed the question to both of the Slayers.

"Yes," Faith replied.

"Yes," Buffy replied. Inanna spent a long moment looking at them, and then Buffy saw her head move, looking past them. Buffy turned to see six figures, dressed all in black, coming swiftly down the road, out of the Magick Box. She could see that they held swords in their hands, and that they moved fast, too fast. "Faith, we've got company," Buffy said, only to see that Faith had also noticed them. Buffy lifted her axe and held it in both hands as she moved towards the oncoming attackers. When one of them was three metres away from her, she started to swing the axe, and as she did so, spun around and lifted the axe, so that it was coming diagonally down towards the woman and man who were approaching her. She was slightly surprised as one of them ducked under her blow, and with lightning quick speed delivered a quick jab to her midgut. She went to swing her axe at the man who was approaching her to attack, but with the same speed, he came in close to her, grabbed her wrist, and twisted, causing Buffy to lose her grip on the axe with her right hand for a moment. The woman who was fighting against her as well, used that time to knock the axe out of her hand. Before she had time to recover, she was stumbling backwards as one of them kicked her. Buffy recovered and took a quick couple of steps backwards as they approached her. She wanted them to attack her again, and that they did. The woman advanced, aiming a kick at Buffy's head. Buffy used the woman's forward momentum and her own backwards momentum to grab the woman's leg and pull, sending her sprawling along the ground past Buffy. She then changed her direction as quickly and as swiftly as she could, approaching the man and punched him in the guts and then delivered an uppercut before knocking him to the ground. Before she knew what was happening, she felt a blow from the back which sent her sprawling forward, tripping over the man who she had just sent to the ground. She rolled with the momentum, and sprung back up and turned around as fast as she could. She got enough time to see that one of the people dressed in black was occupying Willow, Xander and Giles, and three were attacking Faith. She also got the time to see that Inanna was still standing next to the portal, watching the proceedings.

Buffy regrouped. She had to think this through. These people were as fast as her, at her best times, and there were more of them than her. She had to be able to use that to her advantage somehow. Before she had the time to come up with anything, she saw the woman lining up to give her a round-a-house kick to the head. She ducked, but she saw a foot coming for her face too late. The man's foot met her face with a crunch and she was sent flying backwards, knocking her head on the bitumen of the road. Buffy got up, feeling a liquid flow down her face, knowing that it was blood. She got a quick glance at Faith, who she saw had lost her knives to the others, and had blood pouring from various places on her body. She had to get over there to help her, before she was killed, or they'd have to try and find the next Slayer in the morning. She watched as the woman and man approached, and she noticed that they had very, very green eyes. Buffy knew that this was the challenge. These people were from Inanna, this is what they had to fight.

__

"Maybe this is what her army evolved into,"Buffy thought briefly before she got her mind back onto her situation. She had a plan on how to get past the two people in front of her. They started moving towards her, the pair of them next to each other, and Buffy started moving in a straight line, headed for the gap right between them. When she was three metres from them, she ran as fast as she could and jumped, flipping over both of them. When she landed, she put her hands in an X shape as she grabbed the handles of each sword that was strapped to her back. She pulled them out, and as she did so, twisted them around, so that swords were upside down to the way they were supposed to be held, and thrust backwards. She heard the satisfying sound of metal piercing flesh as the swords cut into the two people now behind her. She pulled her swords out and looked towards Faith just in time to see her pull a knife out of one of the people she was fighting against.

"Nooooooo," she heard one of the people they were fighting against scream. Buffy started to move towards them, but she was too late.

"Faith!" Buffy called, but it was no use. Buffy could only watch as the woman picked up Faith's dropped sword off of the ground and drive it right through her stomach, coming out the other side. Buffy could only watch as the sword took over Faith's leg's job of Supporting her, and she was half leaning on the woman, half on the sword to stay upright. Buffy was shocked, she had never expected to see Faith fall, not like this. She was surprised when she saw the woman who had stabbed Faith go flying across the street and smashing into the wall of one of the buildings. She looked to the spot that the woman was once standing at, and saw Inanna standing there. She watched as one of the remaining attackers approached Inanna and swung his sword at her. Inanna caught the sword in her hand, twisted it around until even Buffy heard the man's arm snap, and then watched as Inanna used her other hand and brought it up into the man's face, sending him flying back through the air and crashing into a tree. Buffy watched as Inanna waved her hand, and everything seemed to slow down. She looked around, and she could see that everything was happening in slow motion, except for her, the portal and Inanna. Buffy approached Faith, very slowly, and bent down to examine her wound.

"I find your race quite interesting, and more complex than they seem to be at first inspection. I wish to study your race more, that is why I am giving you this chance, and saving you from these human attackers who wish to harm you, so that you may indeed have a chance at a longer survival," Inanna said. Buffy looked up at her, confused.

"What? You mean, these aren't yours?" Buffy asked. There was a slight pause as Buffy saw Inanna trying to fathom her question.

"No, I did not send these attackers. They are from your world, and they have their own agenda," Inanna replied. Buffy looked at her, and then down at Faith.

"There is still hope for your fellow warrior. Take her through the gates of evolution, there you will find the answers," Inanna said. Buffy sheathed her swords into their holders which were strapped to her back and grabbed Faith under the armpits and began dragging her through the portal. Immediately, Faith's body came into the same time phase as Buffy and she decided to pick her up and walk towards the portal. She stepped up to it, and turned and looked around. She watched as Giles, Xander and Willow moved towards where Faith once stood in slow motion. She watched as the effects of the portal occurred in slow motion; wind blowing the trees and bits of paper flying through the air. She caught something in the top of her vision, and she looked up to see a dove flying directly overhead. She took in the sight, before she turned around and walked into the portal.

Amanda awoke to the sound of people, lots of them. She remembered what had happened. She was fighting against the Slayer, and the Slayer had stabbed Jonathon. Amanda had grabbed The Slayer's sword off of the ground and run her through with it, and before she had time to react, she had seen the green haired woman standing before her and then the next thing she knew, she was flying through the air and then her world went black. She opened her eyes and saw that there were people standing around her. She immediately got up and steadied herself against the building.

"Are you alright," one of them asked her.

"What happened," another asked her. She just waved them off and walked through the crowd to check on her friends and team mates. She could see that Michael was standing in a group of people who were standing in a ring around something. Amanda pushed herself into the ring, and looked down. There were paramedics kneeling down by two bodies; those of Carmen and Derrick. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see that it was Sandra.

"Sandra, what happened?" Amanda asked her. Sandra just looked at her, and Amanda could tell that what she was about to tell her wasn't good.

"Derrick's been announced dead from blood loss, and so has Jonathon. Carmen's in critical condition, the paramedics are working on her there until an ambulance comes. They were at the doctors surgery at the time," Sandra said.

"No," Amanda said, she couldn't believe that Derrick and Jonathon were dead. "How was Derrick killed?"

"The other Slayer. I saw it, she jumped over them and put a sword through each Derrick and Carmen just moments before Jonathon was stabbed by Faith," Carmen replied. Amanda just looked at her, and then a plan came into her mind.

"Give me your phone. We need to notify the coven of what's happened, and we'll need their help to get Jonathon and Derrick's bodies," Amanda said. Sandra gave Amanda her mobile phone, and she hit two on the speed dial. Within moments, she recognised Samantha's voice.

"Samantha, it's Amanda," Amanda said.

__

"Amanda, good to hear from you. I'm glad that you achieved your goals. I'm not sure whether it was on time or not," Samantha said over the phone.

"I have some rather bad news. Derrick and Jonathon are dead. We'll need your help to get their bodies back from the authorities," Amanda said.

__

"That won't be a problem," Samantha replied. "I'm not game to ask, but, do you have The Slayer?"

"No, she was killed," Amanda replied. "And she wasn't revived… I'm taking it that the Potential Slayer we took from Brisbane, Australia has been activated?" Amanda said into the phone.

__

"Yes, she has," Samantha replied.

"Good, so we now control the Slayer line?" Amanda said into the phone, knowing the answer.

__

"Yes, that's correct," Samantha replied. "But I'm not sure that it's in time."

"It has to be," Amanda said, before the line was cut dead.

Buffy looked at the sight before her, there were Vampires surrounding her and Faith in a circle, and beyond that circle, there stood a large structure with the symbol of The First on it (An upside down triangle, surrounded in a circle, surrounded by a right-up triangle). Buffy put Faith on the ground and drew her swords as five vampires approached her. She saw a gap between two of them, and she stepped towards it and swung her swords parallel with the ground, decapatating two of them. She spun around and sliced the hand of another vampire who was swinging it's fist at her. At that moment, the other fifty or so vampires decided that they'd charge at her too. Buffy fought as best as she could, swing her swords, not even aiming to kill, just to hurt. She was exhausted, and she knew that if she hurt them, they'd back away, giving room for more vampires to come that she could hurt and make back away. She swung at the head of one of the vampires, but he caught her wrist and twisted it around, grabbing her sword from her and tossing it away, which she noticed another vampire caught. She twisted out of the vampire's grip and turned and drove her sword through it. She didn't have time to pull it out, so she grabbed the two knives at her side, and started hacking at everything that came near her. She was about to collapse. She saw the vampire that had grabbed her sword swinging her sword towards her head and she ducked out of the way, only to get kicked to the ground by a vampire's foot. She jumped to her feet, only to get hit in the midgut, and then met with an uppercut to her face. With pure determination, she recovered and with both her knives, she cut the head off of the vampire that had uppercutted her. In a sudden moment, she felt something on her back, and on her stomach, and she heard herself let off a gurgling sound. Suddenly, pain shot through her like she had never experienced before. Buffy could feel liquid coming out of her mouth, and looked down to her chest, to where the pain was coming from. Her eyes went wide as she saw a metal point sticking out of it, covered in her blood.

__

"I've failed," Buffy thought. Thought about how everyone was relying on her, and she had failed them. She thought about how Dawn was relying on her to turn her back into a person, and that she had failed at that. She thought about everyone in the world, in her world, that she had failed. She heard a moaning sound, and realised that it was coming from her. She couldn't bleed as blood blocked her air way. With the sickening sound of metal tearing through flesh, and with great pain, the sword was drawn out and Buffy collapsed onto the ground, unable to move, blackness coming to the edges of her vision. She was looking at Faith's limp body, beside her, her eyes staring into space. She thought of the fact that she was away from home, away from everyone she still holds dear, that she'd never see them again. She thought about the fact that they wouldn't be able to bring her back this time, there was no body that they could get to, and there would be nothing left of her once these vampires were finished with her. Buffy thought of heaven, and she remembered exactly like it was last time, and she thought of the fact that she might be going back there, and that the whole human race would meet her there shortly. Because she failed. Buffy looked to Faith as she felt her last breath leave her body, and blackness and death consumed her.

Dawn's Dead. Michaela's Dead. Fred's Dead. Faith's Dead. Buffy's Dead. Dead, dead, dead, everyone's dead. Don't worry though, Buffy, Faith and Willow are still prettymuch the main characters of this story. You're just going to have to wait until the next chapter, which won't be out for a while, because I've got University Exams over the next few days and have to study, so enjoy squirming wondering how the story's going to pan out with Buffy and Faith dead (Doesn't mean they aren't in the story anymore. AND, taking into consideration the name of the next chapter, don't presume you know what's going to happen, cause I gaurantee, you'll get it wrong.

Next Chatper - **Evolution**


	31. Reference: Character Summary and Info Pa...

**_If you haven't read up to here in the storyline, this section will contain major plot spoilers. Use only as a reference_**

Character Summary

> Skye and Rhonda: They are the two potential Slayers who were in Brisbane, Australia, and who's Watchers Council Headquarters were blown up (Chapter 13-Unlocking Potential). These two characters are important parts of the story, only to show what is happening on a large scale is all. After their HQ was blown up, a number of people (Amanda and her team) appeared, claiming to be from the Watchers Council, and they escorted them to a Safehouse. At the Safehouse, Skye hears Amanda talking to Samantha. In short, Amanda and her team told Skye and Rhonda that they work for the Watchers Council, but they actually work for The Coven, and Skye and Rhonda believe that The Coven, is apart of The Watchers Council when they take them there. Skye hears Amanda and Samantha and Montague talking about 'their plan' and how it's almost too late to pull it off, and that they're talking about A Slayer (Chapter 20-Too Late)

Amanda and Her group: Amanda is the key person here, don't worry about the others, eventhough they have names. They work for the Coven, although the readers haven't found out how, and why they do, yet. She and her group have haunting green eyes, and usually dress in completely black leather, which we find out in Chapter 27 - A Mystery in the heart of danger 2, are Magickally enhanced. We don't know much about Amanda and her team, except they have superhuman abilities - they can move very fast, are fairly strong, can be very stealthy, and have super-heightened senses when they want to. This is implied throughout the story, but is found out in Chapter 27 MIHOD2. We learn that they have set out to kidnap a Slayer (Chapter 29 - Stepping towards Evolution and Chapter 27, MIHOD2). At the end of Chapter 29, Stepping towards Evolution, Amanda says into the phone that they killed Faith, but that that still accomplished their goals. Read the chapter to see what I'm saying.

**__

> The Angel Team: 

**Cordelia came back from being and Higher being and got the Angel team to protect the girl that had been recently made (which turned out to be Tara). They decided to leave and go to Sunnydale, to try and recruit the Slayer and her team to help with the vampire army problem in LA, but it is revealed that they are the ones needed in Sunnydale. Fred dies at the Chapter 28, A couple of Million Years ago, but it is only revealed in Chapter 29. She died because Illyria took over her body, along with Inanna inhabiting Michaela's. Connor was protected from this by 'his uniqueness'.

Angelus: he got his soul ripped out by Amy Madison. He is leading an army of Vampires to take over LA. He has inherited some special abilities from The First, like walking in the daylight and a few other things which haven't been mentioned. There will be more of him soon. Keep in mind the Sanshu prophecy, although he's Angelus, I've got things going for me which will work that out.

**

> Oz's Team

**, consists of

Oz: Oz from the show. Can control his werewolf abilities

Naomi - A very powerful psychic witch (can use her mind to sense what's going on around her, read people, etc)

Daniel (Pronounced Dan-yeel) - Another werewolf, like oz who can control his abilities

Brett - A Normal Person

Naomi - Another normal person.

Michaela - Oz's girlfriend. Killed in Action, making way for Inanna to inhabit her body. Used to be a fairly good witch.

The Story of Oz's team is that they have been fighting against "The First" for a while now (Take home message - They have more experience with it than anyone else).

Potential Slayers in Sunnydale: There were three Potential Slayers that rocked up in Sunnydale at the end of _Chapter 7 - Old Ghosts, New Problems Part 2_. There were five potential Slayers that met up with the Angel Crew in LA after fighting Malest and his vampires, but before the Hyperion was sieged. They came to Sunnydale with Angel's crew, now making 8 Potential Slayers that we know of in Sunnydale

**

> Amy Madison

**: Amy Madison was manipulated by The First to extract Angel's soul, and the soul of another being (which we don't know yet). Although this hasn't been stated in the story, I thought it may have been obvious. After that, Amy was manipulated to bring about the first of the Turokhan vampires, although the Syophers did it themselves, using Amy's blood. She then travelled to LA, under direction of The First where she received a bit of Cordelia's energy, and then exploded in a magickal outburst when The First let off the big shock wave. Amy was then convinced to go and gather witches to her cause. And what is her cause you may ask? To take down Willow. She believes that no one person should have that much power and that Willow is dangerous, she is in the process of rallying witches to her cause to take down Willow.

> > (Take Home Message - Amy was Manipulated by The First, to form an army of witches to take down Willow)

Spike: I didn't know what to do with spike, because I don't really like him too much. So, I made it that when he got his soul, he travelled to another dimension and he hung around in this big huge desert for a long time. He then travelled to a ruined Sunnydale where it was revealed that he was one year in the future. He had a close encounter with a Syopher, but a rider on a motorcycle saved him. He is resistant to sunlight. Later on, it was revealed that there is a large magickal barrier around ruined sunnydale. More riders came through and captured spike. It was revealed that one of the riders had the ability to take Spike through the barrier, and that this rider's name was Skye (Yes, that's right, the same Skye that got kidnapped by Amanda and taken to the Coven in England (I hoped that ppl would pick up on this)). Spike is taken to LA and wakes up in a huge basement, where he meets Faith and Buffy. Faith and Buffy are in two different groups fighting against The First, why, we don't know and won't know till much later in the story. Buffy decides to take Spike with her to her group, saving Faith's group having to change locations because The First, apparently needs the Bloodline of Aurelius, and Spike is the missing link and has been the missing link for over a year, for The First. It is revealed that LA is basically in ruins. He goes around with the Future Buffy and Faith as they are attacked. He then rocks up, back in the present time after Buffy and Faith go on their journey, and then he 'buggers off', saying that he wants to die on his own terms.

He WILL be back, and it will be a shock

**

> Anya: 

**I haven't forgotten about Anya. She has a VERY big role in this, and you will see why I haven't included her in the story so far. Just before the final battles begin, or during them (not sure yet) she will be back. All we know of her at the moment is that she is 'organising something, or going to see friends' (Chapter 29 - Steps Towards Evolution - the section where Amanda and her team go into the magick shop)

Darla and Druscilla: Darla was brought back to life, again, by Wolfram and Hart somewhere in _Post Grave_. She was turned by Druscilla, again. Druscilla and Darla were "told" by Wolfram and Hart to approach Angelus with an offer. That's all that's really happened there so far. Will have an important Role

**

> Wolfram and Hart:

** Orchestrated the above, plus, have something to do with Caelecae (one of The Old Ones who returned along with Inanna and Illyria, who inhabit Michaela and Fred's bodies respectively).

Lindsey McDonald: He got his job back with Wolfram and Hart, because he knows what's coming, and he wants to be on the side that wins. He acts as a guide to Caelecae, telling her about the Human World.

**

> The Hellmouth: 

**the Hellmouth is open. It was opened as a side effect of whatever The First was trying to do in _Chapter 18 - It starts_, and the ritual that caused the magickal shock wave. But, someone's gone and put a magickal barrier across it, preventing anything from coming out, or to control what exactly comes out of it. The Library (Where the Hellmouth actually was, in the High school) has also been reinforced to prevent it from collapsing. Buffy and Faith took a little trip there earlier where their asses were kicked by 4 Turokhan. There was also a figure cloaked in red which used magick. Although not stated, you should put the pieces together that this red cloaked figure has something to do with the Turokhan and that they are coming out of the Hellmouth. IN the last chapter, Buffy decided that she, Faith, everyone who could fight (Connor), the potentials and all the witches (save Tara and Willow) were going to go to the Hellmouth. The fighters would guard the witches as they attempted to close it. When they got to the Hellmouth though, Buffy saw one turokhan, four vampires, the red cloaked figure, and two Syophers, which Buffy called Seeophers, one of which was looking directly at her. In chapter 30 - Evolution (at the time, haven't posted this yet), it is revealed that the energy required to do whatever the bad guys did at the Hellmouth (can presume that that was to bring The Old Ones back), effetively closed it for a while, but it is very unstable.

Faith: Faith escaped jail, believing that the Council was coming to kill her. She went about trying to start to take the Council down, but she was being manipulated by The First (in the form of Whistler) to do this. She then met up with Willow and Giles at the Council's HQ in England and came to Sunnydale with them. I had a major role for her in the story, but that's gone now as I've reworked my ideas, and they leave her out. But, she will get to have a pivitol role in the future, I have something scheming, and there will be much more of her.

**

> The Watchers Council

**: The Council is just about totally destroyed. Their Headquarters in _Vasteras - Sweden_ has been overtaken and a Syopher, in the guise of the dead leader of that HQ, is in charge. Their resources are under The First's control. (This happened somewhere in Post Grave

Dawn: In _Chapter 19 - Beginning of the End_ (The one with all the times and where we're seeing the effects of the Magickal shockwave that went across the planet), Dawn glows green and it appears that The Key comes out for a while. In Chapter 28 - A couple of Million Years ago, and in Chapter 29 - Steps towards Evolution, it is revealed that Dawn has been Replaced by "The First" for a while. That happened after Chapter 19. It appeared that The Key came out for a while, but in fact, The Key came out permantly, and Dawn died, The First replacing her. We know that The First has "The Key" "Under control", or under it's guard, and that Buffy wants to Get Dawn, or "The Key" back, by attempting to get "The Key" back, and then use magick to reconstruct dwn.

**

> Buffy: 

**I know that this was not caught by Anyone. At the end of _Post Grave_, Buffy has a dream. In this dream, Buffy is at the spot where she first met The First Slayer. Buffy sees Angel, and she sees him get killed by The First Slayer. Buffy then meets up with Faith. Throughout the Story, there had been dreams, and The First, saying that Faith was **the **Slayer. IN this dream, Faith reinforces that point again before Buffy and Faith have a little fight. Faith disappears, and Tara shows up and says: _You don't even know what you are… what's to come… it's only just begun_. This is IMPLYING that Faith might have been right, and that she is **The** Slayer, and that Buffy is not **the** Slayer. More of this will be explained, in time.

Riley Finn: Yep, Riley Finn is back, and he's the leader of a Commando unit who is in LA. They got their asses kicked by Amanda and her crew, who ended up saving them from A Syopher. They are in LA to do reconnasiance for the American O Ops (Occult Ops).

> That's all I can think of right now, without giving too much away. If ya can't remember anything about Skye and Rhonda and The Coven, I recommend you go back and read some of those bits (Chapter 17 - 20(Approx)), because that's where the next chapter starts off, and it might take some brain power to understand if I've done it the way I want to.
> 
> Also, if you are forming opinions to how this story is going to end, I would recommend against it, as I don't know wether to make this a happy or a good ending, although I do have an idea of what to do which I'm pretty sure, no story or TV show has done before, which is neither happy or bad.
> 
> Now, as a little note, a lot of the following chapters I have not actually sat down and planned out, as I have changed the direction of this story when Spike came back, and Buffy and Faith went on their journey. I WAS going to do something that I haven't seen done in any TV show or story… I was going to start focusing more and more nad more on Spike's POV in the Future, and then gradually just become that, skipping the Time between the Present and The future, so that there is a jump, and then start going to the POV's of the Future people. So the Story didn't actually cover all of that time, and we only see what is (ie, the future, Appocolyptic world), and we find out what happened to make it that way from people talking to each other, and then we follow the Characters of The future until their win, or deaths, whatever it was.
> 
> Pretty Nifty eh? Well, I aint doing that anymore as Spike is back, and Illyria, Inanna and Caelecae are running around. I have a very good idea where this whole new twist is going, eventhough, at the moment, Faith and Buffy are dead. Not to give anything away, I will stop typing now. Keep coming back to this page, as new informatino is foud out, I will add it here so you can come back. Think of this as a reference page, if you're having trouble understanding what's going on, or who people are. For the scale of this story, there has to be a lot of extra characters to fill the roles of people I want. Who else would fill the role of Amanda and her team? Who else could have taken in Inanna's essence. Believe it or not, I need every one of the scoobies to be themselves for what I've got planned.

Take Home Message towards the end of this story - It WILL be BIG and GRAND and it WILL tie up EVERYTHING I can think of, and it will be an ORIGINAL ENDING and expect very good attention to small detail (eg, small things that happened in Post Grave, and earlier on in this story having huge reprocussions - I will reference these things when they come around).

Summary Over.

Next Chatper - Chapter 30 - Evolution

****


	32. Chapter 30 Evolution

Here it is. This, and Chapter 8 - Renascence (the one where Cordelia and Tara come back) are tied as the longest chapters I've ever done. This is a pretty good chapter, in my opinion.

Enjoy.

And can you pleeeaaaaassssseeee review this chapter. Please! I really want to know what you think .

* * *

****

Chapter 30

Evolution

England - Exmoor Forest - A building within the Covensetead

Skye didn't have much of an idea of how long she had been in this building for, but she was pretty sure that it was pretty close to two days. Ever since The Coven got word of the Slayer's death, they had put her into this building. It was a very large, long, rectangular building, made of logs, like all the rest. Except this building was broken up into a series of rooms, with a central dining table in the middle of the building and one bathroom coming off of it. She guessed that there were a total of six rooms, which all looked like bedrooms with two bunk beds in each. There was one thing that was odd about the building however. There were large black symbols painted on the walls and ceiling, and from Skye's brief magickal knowledge, she guessed that they were wards. All she had done for her period within the building was sit and think about the circumstances which led her here, and how something didn't fit. They had told her that she was to remain here, and that Clifford would be keeping watch outside, which to Skye, obviously meant that he would be outside, preventing her from leaving the building. So, she did all that she could do, sit and think. She had had enough time to digest what had happened to her, and she wondered why it couldn't have been passed onto something else.

She had been sitting around the Covenstead, after having a round of training with the rest of the Potentials. She had found out that The Coven had been going out and gathering up all of the Potential Slayers who were meant to be headed for Sunnydale and bringing them here. According to them, The Council had decided that The Hellmouth wasn't the best place to send the future of The Slayer Line, and that the Coven was safer. It was then, that Samantha and Montague, the leaders of The Coven, had come up to her and requested that they speak with her in private. They took her aside, and casually laid out the facts that The Slayer, Faith, had died in Sunnydale, and that they believed that she had been called as the next Slayer. Since then, she had been in this building.

There had only been once event to happen in her time while she was in the building. Skye guessed that it had been a couple of hours ago. Samantha, Montague and three other members of The Coven had come in, but the weird thing was that that was all she could remember. After that, there was nothing; she had woken up in bed. It had only occurred to her in the last few moments that there was a period of time missing from her life in the last few hours. This thought alone was enough to rouse Skye. She had always had a feeling that there was something that was slightly out of place with the people who had come to them in Brisbane, and something about The Coven, and her recent 'lost time' had tempted her into finding out about it. That, and there was also the conversation she had overheard about Samantha and Montague talking about The Slayer to the people who had 'rescued' her from Brisbane. Skye got up off the floor and moved through the building to the door leading to the outside world. She paused there for a moment, sensing a change in the air. She would never claim to be a witch, or even a magick dabbler, but her mother had been a witch and had taught her a few basic things about magick when she was young. One of those was to sense magickal fields and disruptions in natural energy flows, and that was what she was sensing now. She put her hand out in front of her, but nothing happened. She guessed that the magickal field surrounding the house was probably connected to the runes drawn on the ceiling and walls.

Skye took a step outside, for the first time in days. She looked around, and mostly everyone she could see were going about their ordinary business, but she could see a small group of people moving towards a log cabin on the other side of the clearing. She took a couple of steps forward, when a figure came around the corner. Skye recognised it as Clifford.

"I'm sorry Skye, but can you please go back inside. It's for your own protection," Clifford said to her. Skye didn't want to hear it.

"Well, if I am a Slayer now, this should be a piece of cake," Skye thought. She casually moved towards Clifford, making it look like she wanted something. When she was three steps away from him, she closed the distance, and with remarkable ease, she brought him down, knocking him unconscious as she did so. Skye looked around, making sure that no one had seen her, and when satisfied that they hadn't, she picked him up under the armpits and dragged him inside the building before setting off for the other side of the clearing.

Skye crept around to the back side of the building, after sneaking a couple of glances through the windows into the building. She had seen a body lying on the ground, one of the other Potentials she had guessed, and a small group of people standing around another person who was upright in a chair. When she got around the back, she was glad to find that a window was open slightly, and she could hear what was going on inside. She could just hear a soft chanting, and after a few minutes it died down.

"Our test just confirmed it," she heard someone on the inside say.

"So, what does that mean? That I'm it?" she heard a female voice ask, very, very uncertainly.

"Yes, Nicole Adams, you are the next Slayer," Skye heard the voice of Samantha say. Skye didn't believe what she was hearing. This girl couldn't be the next Slayer, she was. She had just proven her abilities before in taking Clifford down. Skye decided that it was time to find out what was happening, and what The Coven was up to. She got up and marched around to the front of the building, and with a deep breath, yanked the door open.

"You told me I was The Slayer? I demand to know what's going on," Skye exclaimed in a not so friendly voice. She looked at the people in the room, who were staring at her with shocked expressions on their faces. She looked to the person on the floor, only in her horror to see that it was her friend, Rhonda.

"I suggest you take a seat then," Montague said to her.

Sunnydale California

They had come back from Main Street, not knowing what had really happened. One minute, they saw Faith getting stabbed, then the next Buffy, Faith and Inanna had disappeared altogether, and most of the people who had attacked them were on the ground after mysteriously obtaining serious injuries. Both Willow and Giles had inferred that Inanna had had something to do with it, and that Buffy and Faith were now taking whatever road they had to in order to get whatever it was that they were going after. That's what Willow didn't like. No one knew what Buffy and Faith had set out to do, and there was a clear message that there was going to be danger involved. They had come back, exhausted, trusting that Buffy and Faith would return once they were done. Everyone else who had remained at the house had come up with some information on Illyria and Inanna anyway. Wesley had told them that Illyria was generally a warrior, although she wasn't as aggressive as some of The Old Ones had been. She was usually called upon for military aid. They had also found several references to a god of the ancient times, in human terms anyway, who could alter time and controlled the forces surrounding the night. They hadn't found anything interesting about Inanna, other than what Giles had already known; that Inanna was a nature god in ancient human times, who symbolised the destruction of the indestructible. Unfortunately, they hadn't gotten anything into how recreate Dawn from where she had left off in her lifetime.

Willow had decided to go to bed after that. She would get up later tonight and help out with the research. She knew where to go to get spells and metaphysical information better than anyone else did, or so she thought anyway. She was glad that Tara had decided to come to bed with her, although she could understand her wanting to sleep in a different bed than her. She had only found out a couple of days ago about them, and obviously hadn't been able to digest all the information, and probably wasn't comfortable with it.

Willow was standing in a forest, trees towering above her. They would have had to of been the tallest trees she had ever seen. She looked up, knowing that she was dreaming, and easily lifted herself off of the ground and up into the treetops. Once there, she saw a sight that took her breath away. There were people living in the treetops. There was a whole network of paths and bridges going from tree to tree, with obvious little huts built into them. She saw a human - looking figure come out of one of the huts which was attached to a tree, and stand on a platform outside of it. She watched as the platform floated down onto a walkway below and the human - like figure stepped off onto the walkway.

"This is my domain. This is my army," a voice said behind her. Willow turned around while floating in mid air to see the body of Michaela, occupied by Inanna floating before her. "This is where I keep my army. This is my land. Evolution occurs faster, time progresses towards it's end at a faster rate."

"This is a dream," Willow replied. "You're not really Inanna… Only my mind could come up with something like this… It's not this easy to fly in real life," Willow replied. She watched as Inanna turned her head slightly to the side and looked at her.

"Why can it not be?" she asked, obviously the question was rhetorical.

"Because there's rules. There's gravity for one. There's energy to be commanded," Willow replied.

"Excuses," was all that Inanna said. They both floated there, looking at each other, Willow's mind trying to catch up to Inanna's. After a moment, Inanna continued. "The Slayers are not the only warriors in this battle. Your person will play an important role in the up coming battles. Which side of the fight you are on depends on your strength of character and belief," Inanna said. Willow just looked at the floating form of Michaela, trying to understand the half riddles she was talking in.

"I'll be fine," Willow replied. "I'm learning control, and Tara's here now," Willow said.

"This is not about your lover. This is about you," Inanna replied.

"Why do you care what happens to us? I thought you didn't care about our race, about our people. I thought you wanted the world given back to your kind," Willow bit back harshly.

"I can rid your world of humans with ease. My army here has more inventiveness than the humans, and have superior weapons. However, your race intrigues me. They are so weak, yet so strong at the same time. You fight against overwhelming odds as a people, yet the individual still matters… This shell matters to a Lycanthrope. The Lycanthrope would die for this shell," Inanna replied. There was a long silence before she continued. "I thought that the human race would wither and die after we parted from this world, yet, I return and they are the dominant people. There is a great potential for power within them, as there is in yourself, and they are quite inventive… I wish to see the human race last for a little more time, so that I can study them and learn what drives them," Inanna replied. "For that to happen, I need some of them to survive this war."

"Why not bring your armies to earth and help us fight this war. I have felt it, the overwhelming numbers against us. I haven't said anything to the others, but there are very dark forces at work," Willow replied.

"This is the humans' war. I am not a part of it…" Inanna replied, but was cut of by Willow.

"What about these humans?" She said while waving her hand around "What…" Willow started.

"I did not say that these creatures were human," Inanna replied. "If the humans do not survive, then they are not worth studying. I am just giving you're a fighting chance," Inanna replied. "This is all. I have told you what I brought you here for," Inanna said.

Willow sat bolt-upright in her bed, sweating heavily. The last words Inanna had said to her were repeating themselves over and over again in her mind.

"You must go on a journey yourself. You must come past the problems that have faced you your entire existence, those which make you weak and succumb to those around you, those things which make you lie to yourself. You must face these things and win, or there is no hope for your race. You can not start out on this journey by yourself, but you must complete it by yourself. Use whoever you will to begin your journey and to help you find your way, but it must be accomplished alone… Go, while there is a great number of your people, when they can survive without your presence, for if you wait, your numbers will fall until there is only a handful left, and it will be too late."

There was nothing around her, absolutely nothing. There wasn't a sky, or a ground. Her body was non existent. Around her, there was just grey, and she wasn't even sure if she was seeing it or it was something else, the back of her eyelids for example. Buffy knew that there was something very important that had just happened, that had led her to this place, but she didn't know what; she couldn't remember. She couldn't tell how long she had been in this state, there was no concept of time. It could have been seconds, or it could have been years, she didn't know. Some kind of depth started to appear in her surroundings, as slowly, a ground seemed to appear. The world in front of her faded away and she was standing in an alley, in Sunnydale, with Spike standing before her.

" Every Slayer has a death wish," Spike said before turning away from her and walking away. She heard a noise beside her and turned, and she was now in a park at night time, a dark woman and a young boy standing in front of her.

"The Mission is what matters Robin. Go home, be safe," the woman said. Buffy could sense something behind her, and she turned. Now she was in the middle of the desert, an image of Tara standing right in front of her,

"You don't even know what you are, what's to come, it's only just begun." Behind Tara, she saw an image of The Fist Slayer, bent low to the ground, coming up to her.

"No friends. No family. Only alone. All about the kill," she heard The First Slayer say.

"Your enemy is the key. Use it to unlock the gates of evolution. Fight for it," an image of Inanna said beside Buffy before disappearing. Buffy saw movement out of the corner of her eye again, and turned only in time to see The First Slayer launch herself off of the ground at Buffy. She got hit and taken down to the ground, and automatically reached out her arm and caught the hand holding a stake aimed right at her heart. When she looked at the hand however, it wasn't that of The First Slayer's. She looked up into the face of the person on top of her, holding the stake, and saw herself staring right back. Shock went through her entire body as she looked into her own eyes, struggling to hold the stake away from her body. Buffy couldn't react as her other self rammed her head into Buffy's, smashing it down against the rock. Buffy's world became dizzy, but she pushed out with her knees and flipped her other self off of her, sending her onto her back only a metre or so away. Buffy got up and faced her other self, both of them standing in the same positions. Buffy gave it a moment, before she stepped forward with one leg, and kicked out with the other towards her other self's head, but her other self caught he foot and pushed Buffy backwards, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Buffy got up again, and just narrowly missed a fist coming towards her face. She dodged another fist, and then sent one back of her own, successfully hitting her other self in the midgut. She swung for her other self's face, and successfully connected, hearing the sound of breaking bone underneath her fist. Her other self was sent onto her back on the ground, blood pouring out of her nose. This didn't stop her however, her other self got up and faced off against Buffy again.

"You're alone, no one wants you," _a voice said inside Buffy's head. It was her own voice, but she sensed that it came from her other self, although her other self's lips didn't move. _"You've had two, no, make that three, people get close to you, and you've drove them away each time,"_ the voice said._

"That's not true," Buffy replied.

"Angel, he left, because of you," _the voice said. Buffy noticed that her other self had started moving sideways, and she moved in the same direction. Both Buffy's were circling each other now. _"It was all your fault. He left because you weren't willing to commit to him."

"No, he left because he needed to. It was too dangerous for him, for us," Buffy replied back.

"Tell yourself whatever you need to. You're only lying to yourself," _the voice said. Both Buffy's circled each other now, arms up, ready to attack, blood coming out of one's nose. _"And then there was Riley… the little soldier boy… just a regular, ordinary, person… the type of person you wanted to be with, after Angel of course," _Buffy's alter ego said. Without warning, Buffy saw her alter ego come at her and deliver a kick towards where her head had been if she hadn't dodged the blow. She saw her alter ego's fist starting to swing towards her face, and Buffy ducked and delivered her own punch to her other self's mid section, below her defences, sending her backwards._ "He left because you thought he wasn't good enough for you," _the voice inside Buffy's head said again. _…"that he couldn't match up to your expectations. He was slower, weaker, and just worse than you."

"No, he wasn't worse than me. He wasn't any of those things. He only thought I thought those things… He was a good man," Buffy replied.

"Again, making excuses," _Buffy's alter ego said inside her head. _"You will always be alone, no one will ever way to be with you, ever like you as a person. And those that do, you drive them away."

"That's not true," Buffy replied.

"Oh, then what about Spike? You allowed him in, allowed him to live in his delusions by hanging around you and Dawn. And then what? You tell him he's a man, and give him hope, only to die that night and leave for eighty-five days. And then what? You come back, be with him, while telling him he's worthless and evil? I think you were talking about the wrong person then. At that point in time, he was better than you," _the voice said._

"Stop," Buffy replied. There was a long silence as the pair continued circling each other, both of them staring into the others eyes with a now burning hatred. Again, Buffy's alter ego came at her, spinning around and delivering a spinning kick to Buffy's shoulder, almost lodging it out of place. Buffy stumbled to the side and regained her composure, only to see a fist coming towards her face. She didn't have enough time to dodge the blow, and she got a fist to her cheekbone. Buffy could feel a lot of blood conjugating in her mouth, and she spat it out onto the almost white sand from the bright sun overhead.

"You'll always be alone," _the voice said. _"There'll never be anyone who will truly be there for you over anyone else, because you drive them away… even your friends, you're lucky to have that much. How many times have you driven them away from you?" _There was a long silence as Buffy stared at the version of herself. Buffy wasn't going to let this get to her. This version of herself didn't know what it was talking about. Whatever it was, it hadn't been there, it hadn't witnessed these things. Buffy wouldn't let it get under her skin. She knew that that was what it's plan was, to get under her skin and make her weak and uncertain, then it would be able to kill her easily. _"Why do you think that is Buffy? Why do you drive everyone away from you?" _the voice said. Before Buffy actually had time to think about it, if she were paying attention to what was in front of her, it started speaking again. _"Because you believe that being the Slayer makes you superior. Your friends can sense this, not at a conscious level, but they can sense it, and they know it. That's what drives people away, from you. That's why you'll always be alone.

"I don't believe I'm superior to them. How could I? How could I be superior to Willow? It's in the nature of the Slayer to be alone. The First Slayer was alone, it was in her nature, and it's been handed down through the generations. The Slayer will always be alone," Buffy replied.

"That's bullshit" _the voice replied inside her head. _"That's a load of crap, and you know it. You're weak, believing the shit that the Council shoves down your neck… Yeah, The First Slayer was alone, but do you see anyone else out here?" _The voice said as Buffy's alter ego raised her arm and waved it out at the desert surrounding them. _"You're alone because you're, you. Because you are so fucked up you don't even know you're fucked up. How long have the feelings of being detached been there? Sine LA at least, before you were The Slayer. You're a waste of space, people would be better off without you. You're not better than those around you, hell, you're not even better than Spike. He had evil in his nature, and he still tried to do good," _the voice said. It had gotten to Buffy. She didn't want to believe what her other self was saying to her, and a large part of herself fought against it and didn't believe it, however there was that one little part, deep within her that welcomed the information and accepted it, driving the rest of her emotions and mid insane as it tried to reject the information._

"No, that's not true," Buffy replied, no confidence in her voice.

"You know it is. No one will ever get close to you again. You'll die, old, alone, and bitter and angry at the world because it was always 'their' fault, when deep down, you know that it was a problem with you," _the voice said. _"You'll never be truly loved, because you're a killer by your nature, not The Slayer's, not anything else. You drove Angel away. You drove Riley away. You even drove Spike away, and why do you think Dawn was always yelling at you? Because that's what teenage girls do? Yeah, sure, that's what teenage girls do with an older sister that treats them like they're nothing, like they're worthless." _Buffy sunk to her knees. These were her deepest fears, and she couldn't handle it. In a moment of clarity, it dawned on her that whatever was in front of her was speaking the truth. She was all these things, and she had been lying to herself for all this time; for most of her life. She only began to think what else she had been doing without her knowledge, and it became too much. Her insides had turned to jelly long ago from fear. Buffy sunk down and sat on her feet, her insides engaged in the war of her lifetime. She sat, staring at the sand at the point where her alter ego used to be._

There was nothing around her, absolutely nothing. There wasn't a sky, or a ground. Her body was non existent. Around her, there was just grey, and she wasn't even sure if she was seeing it or it was something else, the back of her eyelids for example. Faith knew that there was something very important that had just happened, that had led her to this place, but she didn't know what; she couldn't remember. She couldn't tell how long she had been in this state, there was no concept of time. It could have been seconds, or it could have been years, she didn't know. Some kind of depth started to appear in her surroundings, as slowly, a ground seemed to appear. The world in front of her faded away and she was standing in an alley, in Sunnydale, with Spike standing before her.

" Every Slayer has a death wish," Spike said before turning away from her and walking away. She heard a noise beside her and turned, and she was now in a park at night time, a dark woman and a young boy standing in front of her.

"The Mission is what matters Robin. Go home, be safe," the woman said. Faith could sense something behind her, and she turned. Now she was in the middle of the desert, an image of Tara standing right in front of her,

"You don't even know what you are, what's to come, it's only just begun." Behind Tara, she saw an image of The Fist Slayer, bent low to the ground, coming up to her.

"No friends. No family. Only alone. All about the kill," she heard The First Slayer say.

"Your enemy is the key. Use it to unlock the gates of evolution. Fight for it," an image of Inanna said beside Faith before disappearing. Faith saw movement out of the corner of her eye again, and turned only in time to see The First Slayer launch herself off of the ground at Faith. She got hit and taken down to the ground, and automatically reached out her arm and caught the hand holding a stake aimed right at her heart. When she looked at the hand however, it wasn't that of The First Slayer's. She looked up into the face of the person on top of her, holding the stake, and saw herself staring right back.

"Like what you see?" _Faith's other self said to her while pushing the stake towards her heart. Faith put both hands around the stake and forced it to the side. She still held onto it, and pulled it downwards so that it went into the sand beside her body, bringing her other self down towards her while Faith sent her head up towards her other self. There was a loud crack as their skulls collided, Faith's forehead hitting her other self in the cheek. Faith saw her other self reel back, and Faith used this opportunity to use her legs to push her alter ego off of her. Faith flipped herself up and quickly kicked the stake away before turning to look at her alter ego, who was getting up off of the ground blood coming out of her nose and cheek. Her other self straightened herself up and then stood in a defensive stance facing Faith. _"Or would you prefer it if you were fighting this," _her other self said to her, with her normal voice while morphing into an image of Buffy. Buffy came towards her at full force, jumping and delivering a flying spinning kick in Faith's direction, but Faith ducked it, only in time to see Buffy's foot coming towards her again. She jumped over it this time, narrowly missing it. Buffy then kept using her momentum, and extended her fist. This time, Faith wasn't fast enough to dodge it, and she got a powerful blow to her right mid section, sending her stumbling backwards a bit. Faith regained her composure and stood in a defensive stance, ready for Buffy to come towards her. When Buffy started moving towards her, Faith spun around, and delivered a spinning kick to where Buffy's head used to be, but she had ducked it. Faith decided to take a page out of her book and kept using her spinning momentum and spun around and delivered a low spinning kick, but Buffy had jumped over that. She kept using her momentum, and struck Buffy across the face with her fist after another spin, sending her backwards, but with a smile on her face. _"Always living in her shadow are you Faith… Trying to be like her, to take her life, to match up to her standards, to be accepted," _the voice said inside her head. _"You're pathetic, just copying her, just copying everyone around you."

"Shut up," Faith replied before she moved to attack the image of Buffy. She took three quick steps towards her, and kicked at her shins, making Buffy jump. This was exactly what she wanted her to do as Faith drove her fist into Buffy's body suspended in mid air, sending her sprawling backwards onto the ground. She approached her, but got her legs taken out from underneath her by Buffy. They were both on the ground, looking at each other, and at once, they both scrambled to get up, but Buffy won and kicked Faith in the side, sending her back to the ground.

"You'll never be her. You'll never match up to her standards. You'll never have her life. You'll never have friends like she does. You're a loner Faith, no matter how much you try to deny it," _the voice said inside her head. _"Everyone knows that you're not worth it, that you're a fake. Thy all know Faith, that behind that 'tough as ass' attitude, you're just a scared little girl who wants someone to even pay her the slightest attention…" _the voice started._

"Hey, didn't I tell you to shut up," Faith said back to the image of Buffy, which she noticed had slowly morphed back into an image of herself. Faith could feel butterflies inside her stomach, but she wasn't going to let, whatever was standing in front of her, know that. She approached it and viciously hit out towards her alter ego's head. Her alter ego dodged the blow, but Faith had already lined up her other fist and brought it into her other self's mid section. Before her other self could act, Faith's knee was coming up towards it's face, breaking bone as it connected with her other self's nose. Blood poured out onto Faith's knee, and as her alter ego fell back with the force of the blow, Faith advanced, but unexpectedly got her knee kicked out from under her by her alter ego. She was on her knees by the time her alter ego was on her feet, and she didn't have time to block the kick coming towards her gut. The kick was so hard, it sent Faith back about a metre, lying on the ground. She slowly got to her feet, and looked at her alter ego, feeling something coming up her throat, which was revealed to be blood.

"You can't win, Faith. You're always going to be alone, no one's ever going to love you," the voice said. "You'll never be able to be happy… You've never had a lover…" the voice started.

"I've had plenty," Faith replied as she looked at her alter ego, waiting for her to make her next move.

"They weren't lovers Faith. They were just, a bit of fun, every single last one of them," _the voice said. _"You'll never have someone touch you the same way Riley did, when he thought you were Buffy. You'll never know that ever again," _her alter ego said._

"Shut up," Faith replied. She remembered that. That had set off a chain reaction that had caused Faith to doubt her views that love was only found in fairy tales and TV shows. She had felt the way he had touched, seen the look in his eyes and the look on his face, like meeting Buffy had been the best thing that had ever happened to him. That had caused her to doubt what she was doing, and to think about trying to get that for herself, which would mean settling down a little. It was what caused her self destruction in Los Angeles, in front of Angel.

"You'll never have that, never. You're worthless, pathetic. No one will ever believe in you. You'll always be viewed as the crazy, self destructive, murdering one, no matter what you do," _her alter ego's voice said._

"So what if I am? I don't care," Faith replied.

"I don't believe that. You do care, and everyone around you can tell,"_ her alter ego said. _"You've been on the verge of insanity your whole life Faith. Because of that, you'll only know rejection and nothing else. You're like the scared abused little puppy, curled up in the corner, too afraid to even face the world." _Faith approached her other self and punched at her, but her other self side stepped her and kicked her in the back, using Faith's momentum to send her sprawling face first into the ground. _"You're more messed up than you even know, and no one is going to help you with it, because no one will ever trust you enough, no one will ever even look at you like you're even worth helping. They'll never even give you a chance." _Faith was getting up off of the ground after vomiting more blood from the kick she received to her mid section, but she got shoved back into the ground by a foot on her back. _"You're going to have a wasted life. Not even to life's full potential. Everyone else will live fulfilled lives, however, you won't, because no one will ever give you a chance Faith, and as long as that matters to you, which it always will, you'll always be detached, you'll always be the odd one out. You'll always be the one everyone is nice to their faces, but then cuts into you with their words behind your back," the voice said to her. "You'll just be a waste of resources, and just a waste of space. No better than the vampires you claim to fight… You've claimed to try and change, but that's impossible. In the end, we all are who we really are, and you're a murdering, insecure, psychopathic, waste of space." _With that, Faith used all her strength and lifted herself out from underneath her other self's foot and with one swift motion, kicked her alter ego's feet out from under her. She got up and straddled her other self and started delivering punches to the face._

"You're wrong. I have changed, I have. It is possible to change you bitch, it is, it is. I have changed, and I'm not a waste of space. I'm trying to be good, I'm trying," Faith screamed as tears ran down her face and as she punched the sand in the space that her alter ego's face used to be.

Willow knew that there was truth to the words that Inanna, or whatever it was in her dream had spoken. She had problems, this much she could figure out by logic, but what her problems were, she didn't have a clue. Immediately, she had gone downstairs and explained to Giles, Xander and Tara that she needed to go for a while, to leave and get her head in check. She told them that it was to try to overcome her tendency to become evil every second time she used magick. She had walked out the door, and immediately teleported herself into woods in the middle of no where, where she was sure she would not be disturbed. It was risky, but she decided that it was worth it. There, she found a spot that suited her. It was near a river, with high trees which gave shade to most of the underlying groundcover. There, she sat and crossed her legs and began to connect herself with nature, centering and grounding herself. It took about an hour, but Willow didn't notice that. When she was done, she felt as if she belonged here, in the middle of the forest. She could feel the essences of every living thing around her. The words of Inanna came back to her, that she couldn't do this on her own. At hearing that, her first thought was to bring Tara along, but then decided against it as she had her own issues going on at the moment, and didn't need to have Willow's problems dumped on her. Her next thought was to bring Xander, but she decided that she didn't want anyone from the Scooby Gang to be here, to know this. She then thought of the other people in the house, Oz, Wesley, Fred and the rest, but she dismissed them. After that, it had taken some brain storming as to exactly who to ask to help her, but she had come up with the answer.

"Cordelia," Willow said, sending her thought and word out with her mind and her power out over the whole world and across dimensions. Almost immediately, a blue humanoid figure materialised in front of Willow, and then turned into Cordelia. Willow had thought about this over and over again, and Cordelia was the best person to ask. She needed someone who would be straight with her, who wouldn't hold back on expense of her feelings. Although Willow didn't know what was wrong with her, she did know that it was one of those things that when done, would change her outlook on life, and that would be very emotional. She didn't need someone holding back, on account of those things, and Cordelia was just that person. It was also an added plus that she seemed to become a lot wiser since her ascension to a higher plane.

"Well, its about damn time this happened," Cordelia said as soon as she had materialised.

****

Three Days Later

Abandoned Warehouse - Los Angeles -California

Amy was standing up the front of the small room she had managed to hire for the week, before she was certain that she would have to find a larger place for their meetings. The room was absolutely full now of magick users. They had all come here, to help her bring down Willow. She could sense a couple in the room who had a rather large amount of power, a few had barely anything, but most in the room were moderate with their magickal ability. This is what she needed. There, was however, one thing she needed them all to do. The First had instructed her that she needed these people, plus her, to perform a certain spell. The First had even told her the cover story that she needed to use. She had just finished explaining to everyone in the room the same thing she had explained at the first meeting; that Willow was a threat, unstable and needed to be taken down. She let them talk amongst themselves for a while, before she called out to them again.

"Okay, first of all, there's something we all need to do," Amy said. "Everyone who is in this, stay here. Anyone who doesn't want any part in this, leave." Amy waited a bit, and let two or three people leave, one of them was one of the powerful ones. Amy didn't know wether they could see through her glamour she had cast on herself to hide her black eyes and hair, but she expected that they didn't buy her story. That was fine, as long as they kept their mouths shut about it. "Willow is a very paranoid person, and she likes to protect herself," Amy started. "She will probably most likely know sooner or later that we are going to go after her, and she will strike out. We need to make sure that that doesn't happen by protecting ourselves from her senses, so we need to perform a spell together, now," Amy said. She watched, as everyone in front of her listened and accepted her story.

An hour later, everyone was leaving, believing that they were protected from Willow. They weren't protected from Anything. Amy Madison looked out the window at the setting sun, and she knew that the sun would rise again, but not for Los Angeles. The city would be plunged into a never ending night, allowing The First to take over the city.

Summers Residence - Sunnydale - California.

Xander, Giles and Tara were the only two left of the Scooby Gang. Buffy had disappeared with Faith, and Willow had told them that she had to learn to control her magickal abilities. Dawn had turned into a mystical ball of green energy, and no one knew where Anya was. Cordelia had come by two days ago and told them what was really going on with Willow, that she was going through life - altering changes, and that they should all be there for her and give her space when she got back. Cordelia told them that she was facing her problems; the problems that she had had her entire life, and she urged everyone to consider the scale of this, as everyone had a set of problems, buried deep within themselves which most were too scared to overcome, and probably never would in their entire lives. Cordelia told them that Willow had gone to face those problems, and that she knew that she had to overcome them before the final battles began, as she dangled dangerously on the edge of which side she would be on. She had also told Tara that with this, her importance in the final battles would diminish somewhat, but that she would still play an important part _(Reference - Chapter 8 - Renascene)_. Xander was just thinking about all this, as everyone else researched the box or ways to get Dawn back. They had actually made a little bit of progress on that front. The others, who weren't researching, had decided that it would be best to start training and coming up with ways to defend the house, as they had come to the conclusion that there was going to be an attack on the house sooner or later, and that it would be best to be prepared. Xander on the other hand, was sitting on the couch, having a break from helping to come up with ways to defend the house, when he heard the front door open. He looked up to see Willow come in, her head bowed and her hair covering most of her face. He had never seen her in that state before. It actually reminded him a bit of Tara, trying to hide behind her hair. He caught her eyes, just for a second and could see that they were bloodshot. He got up and slowly moved towards her, and wasn't surprised when she grabbed onto him and buried her head into him.

__

Unknown Location - Time not to the same scale as Earth.

Energy sizzled through the ground, moving sediment and forming a shape. There was a large mound of sand that had formed on the ground, and it split in two down the middle. Soon, the lumps of sediment had formed the shape of two people. The sediment compacted and hardened, it's chemical make up changing as it did so, creating two skeletons. Energy travelled over the skeletons, creating the nerves within them and adding marrow. It also added some amoeboid cells (living, single, blob-like cells, capable of moving), capable of dividing and differentiating into any type of cell needed, giving the skeletons added healing ability, and the ability to regenerate bone and even whole limbs. Next, muscles, ligament and cartilage began to form, the muscles given extra layers, the ligament being reinforced and the cartilage being extraordinarily thickened. The Circulatory, Respiratory and Reproductive systems were created next, indicating that the bodies both belonged to a female. The digestive system and an advanced lymphatic system (ability to fight off disease) were generated next, then the dermal system (skin, hair etc). The remaining organs were created, along with a modified brain, allowing for a greater capability to be used by the owners of the bodies. Yellow energy swirled and entered the bodies through the noses, each containing memories and thoughts. Next, two yellow-white masses descended over both bodies and entered them.

Faith awoke with a start and opened her eyes. She was looking up into dark brown clouds and could feel wind rushing past her. She looked to the side to see that Buffy was laying beside her, looking up at the sky, and then that she turned her head and looked at her. Faith got up, along with Buffy, and she could see a wall of shimmering air. On the other side, she could barely make out what appeared to be Main Street of Sunnydale. She took in a deep breath, and noticed that she felt a lot different, lighter and more care free. She looked over to Buffy, and the look that Buffy was giving her told her enough; that Buffy had been through pretty-much the same thing as her. She understood what Inanna was going on about now, when she said that 'your enemy is the key, use it to unlock the gates of evolution, fight for it.' Both she and Buffy had set out, believing that they would have to be involved in a physical fight with some kind of demonic foe. Instead, they had to fight themselves. They were fighting their enemy when they were fighting against themselves; and that by over coming this, they had managed to evolve. _Faith was filled with a new depth, one which she had only experienced a for a few fleeting moments in her life. She never would have understood what they had just gone through before, but now she does. She started to walk forwards, towards the shimmering wall and stepped through it._

They were back in Sunnydale, in Main Street. It looked a lot different than it had when they had been here last. Everything was as it should normally be. Faith turned to look back into the shimmering wall of energy, but it had disappeared without warning. She looked around at the world around her, and it dawned on her that she was looking at as it really was for the first time in her life. Everything was different. For the first time in her life, there wasn't an underlying fear of the world and herself within her. For the first time in her life, she had felt like she was truly alive.

"Come on, let's go kick some ass," Buffy said to her, and at once, they both headed off towards the Summers' Residence.

* * *

Okay, there we go. I bet that's what you didn't think when you thought "Evolution" eh? Well, things will be heating up from here.

Umm, i wanted to do the bits with Buffy and Faith fighting themselves and their deepest, darkest fears better, but for some reason, i can't do that tonight. I believe Faith's is better, because i am waaaaayyyy better at understanding Faith and getting inside her head. I was thinking of putting up what Willow goes through, but it's prerttymuch the same as faith - inferiority issues. Anyway, some of Willow will come as she has't fully gotten through it yet.

Reviews are much appreciated and make me write faster, even if they're bad reviews

Next Chapter - Chapter 31 - Moving On (Will have a lot of focus on the characters not in this chapter, and will keep the story rolling on the characters in this chapter as well)


	33. Chapter 31 Snap

Okay, next chapter is up. .. imo, this is a pretty average chapter. I know where I'm going with this story, but I don't know how to get there.

Also, another note, the process which was used to re-create Buffy and Faith's bodies, was the same process which was used to re-create Tara's body. Just a little fact you should all know.

* * *

Chapter 31

Snap

****

Sunnydale - California

They watched the two warriors come out of the portal, both having succeeded in their mission. The pair watched as the warriors looked around at the world as if it were through new eyes.

"You give aide to the humans? Why? They are weak and fragile, nothing more than dirt. They fear their enemy, who is not much better than them, just as sand is to dirt, the vampire is to humans," Illyria said to Inanna.

"They are an interesting race. I help them so I may observe," Inanna replied. "But yes, I agree, they are weak, in some aspects, but strong in others." The pair continued to look at Buffy and Faith as they walked off. Finally, Illyria turned to Inanna. She waved her hand, and the world surrounding them changed. The sky overhead darkened, the buildings around them now lay in ruins, and rain poured down.

"They will fall like insects, your aide will not prevent this fate. The walls of this dimension are thinning and falling into ruin. The Key is in their enemy's hands. There is no possibility for humans to keep this world for themselves," Illyria said to Inanna. Inanna just nodded her head, in agreement with Illyria as the world around them shifted back to the present.

"I do not deny that fact. The humans have the ability to save themselves, I will allow them to see it. But if they die, so be it," Inanna replied before turning and walking away.

****

Los Angeles - California

Angelus was standing in a large underground cavern. From it, there were four tunnels branching out in each direction of the compass. He looked up as the roof of the cavern shuddered again as another blast rang out. They had turned eight construction crews two nights ago, and immediately after the fledging vampires had risen, Angelus had put them to work in creating shelters and a network of tunnels underneath Los Angeles, far enough below ground not to be detected and the tunnels had to be reinforced enough to prevent collapse in the case of tremors. Angelus didn't agree with the idea of super-reinforcing the tunnels, but The First insisted on it. Angelus knew that it wouldn't be long before the American commandos who were in town found out about his operation below the city, and that's why Angelus had come up with a tactic. The First had recently told him that the sunlight in the city wouldn't harm vampires any more, as there was a magickal shield around the city now. It filtered out the harmful ultraviolet rays which caused the vampires to burn, as well as give sun cancer, but Angelus wasn't too concerned about that _(Reference to Last Chapter, Amy Madison's part)._ He moved towards the other vampires who were looking over the weapons that Wolfram and Hart had recently supplied them with. There was everything from pistols, semi-automatic weapons and sniper rifles to intricate swords, battle axes and crossbows _(Reference Chapter 24 – Story Time – End Section)_. In one hour, they would go up and turn everyone in the buildings above their tunnels, and create a small area that only vampires would be allowed to enter and leave. Anyone else would be turned or killed on sight.

She didn't like this. Sure, she was serving the ultimate evil, and playing an important part in the apocalypse, but that was never really her style. She preferred it years ago, when the four of them had travelled through Europe, ravaging the countryside. She had preferred that, before they had come across Wolfram and Hart, the organisation which had brought her back to life two times now. At least she had her Angelus back now, but he wasn't the same Angelus of years past. This Angelus had a higher agenda, a goal. The times had indeed changed. Now, she had a son as well, who never knew his mother, who had never seen her. She had staked herself in order to give birth to him. Surely Angel had told him of her, how she was a vicious murdering vampire. She had read the file that Wolfram and Hart had given her about Connor, and how he had been taken away to Quartoth (sp?). That he had come back and tried to kill Angel, believing what his surrogate father had told him about Angel, how he was a vicious murdering machine. Darla found it amusing that he had put Angel on the bottom of the ocean.

"The puppets are getting scared of the big mean man, marching through their paper stick town," Druscilla said. Darla just about ignored Druscilla's ranting. She wanted to see her son, see what had come out of her, Wolfram and Hart be damned, surely they could slip out to Sunnydale and back to Los Angeles before they knew about it, or before they could do anything about it. She didn't care about some stupid contract she had signed; this was the real world and nothing could tell her what to do.

"Come on Dru, we're leaving."

****

Sunnydale – California

He was sure that no one would miss him for a while. They were all too busy researching; researching the being who had murdered and taken over his girlfriend's body. Oz didn't understand why it had to be Michaela. A part of himself blamed her that she had gone with the others; that she took charge at the final moments. That part of him believed that if she had stayed here, with him and the rest of them, she would now be okay. The other part of him told himself that he was just being stupid. The fact that Michaela had taken charge, the fact that Michaela had gone; those were the things he loved about her. If she hadn't been the person he had loved, she would have stayed behind.

Now there was this thing, this Old One, walking around in his former girlfriend's body. He couldn't stand the thought of it, that it had taken her body. If she was in fact truly dead, her body should be in the ground, returned to the earth from where it came, not walking around with something else inside it. It was appalling, and Oz knew that he couldn't do anything about it, and that thought unsettled him right down to the very core.

Memories were coming back to her now, only one at a time. She would remember a woman who looked wise and knowledgable, whom she guessed to be her mother. She remembered some strange demons with large, haunting smiles which floated above the ground, that looked like something out of a fairy tale. She could remember a blonde haired woman sitting beside her, crushing her hand. Tara could also remember a spell, to bring Buffy back to life. That was one of the first things she had remembered. It was getting easier being here, she could start to put the pieces together of people's lives. She knew that Xander was Willow's best friend, and that Giles was the older, father figure. She knew that there should be bad blood between her and one of the young men, the werewolf, but she couldn't feel it. Tara had guessed that there were things that Willow hadn't told her yet, probably not to dump too much on her at once. She was wondering about that now, Willow had just left and been gone for three days before she came back, and when she had, she was in tears and looked completely physically and emotionally drained. Tara knew that Willow was going through her own things, and that she wouldn't be able to help her much. She thought, as though before, in her previous life, she had been lovers with Willow, that maybe her presence would help her out a bit, but she wasn't sure, not remembering much about it. That's why she tentatively went upstairs to Willow's door and opened it up just to let her see what was going on inside. She saw Willow sitting on the bed, staring into space. She opened the door fully and walked into the room.

"How are you doing?" she asked Willow. Willow just looked up at her, it being obvious that she had been crying.

"Funnily enough, the best I've been in probably my whole life," Willow replied.

Caelecae stepped up next to Lindsey McDonald, looking over the city of Sunnydale, the sun setting over the horizon. They were standing on the top of King Man's Bluff, the place where Lindsey was told that Caelecae would re-enter this world after her meeting with the Senior Partners and The First Evil was over.

"The Wolf Ram and the Hart have indeed grown since our absence," Caelecae said.

"I would have thought so," Lindsey replied.

"They are arrogant. Thinking that they can control me and deceive The First Evil. They are trying to control what happens. They are fools, this has gone beyond them now," Caelecae replied. "Keep that in mind human, for your allegiances in the battle for your race may lay in the wrong hands."

"I'll keep that in mind," Lindsey replied coolly to Caelecae. They stood there for a few moments, none saying a word.

"This world has indeed changed since our time… come, we seek Inanna," Caelecae said before turning and starting to head down King Man's Bluff.

Something had changed, Nicola knew that a couple of moments ago. The atmosphere around their house had shifted slightly, the energies surrounding the house shifted. She looked around to Cassia, who was sitting beside Dawn, Xander, Brett and Naomi watching the television. To her, Cassia hadn't sensed any changes in the surrounding air, or at least, she didn't show any visible signs that she recognised them. She looked over to the other people in the room; to Gunn who was still recovering from the injuries he had received from the Syopher _(reference – Chapter 15 – Showdown)_. None of them showed any signs of recognising any change in the air. Nicola looked back towards the television, and saw that it was switched onto the news.

"… are warning residents of Los Angeles not to go out at night time and to keep all doors and windows locked in the threat of the multiple killings which have occurred in the city over the last week or so. Police believe it is due to the prison break a couple of weeks ago of Orange maximum security prison on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Police are still looking for this woman among others," the television reporter said while a picture of Faith came onto the screen. "who are believed to be very unstable and dangerous… in other news, it is believed that copycat killers are emerging in communities surrounding the Los Angeles area, with a number of deaths in Sunnydale and other areas greatly resembling the killings in the Los Angeles area," the reporter said. Nicola knew that things were getting out of hand, and that the public would have to notice something happening some time or other. She knew that something was definitely wrong now as a large amount of energy sharply passed through the air surrounding the house. She knew that she could be wrong because there were many disturbances occurring all over the town, and the Hellmouth was still open. They had never gotten the chance to close it, having to worry about themselves and making sure that they were all safe. Nicola saw that Cassia was now looking at her, having recognised that last energy wave that went through the air.

"Something's happening," Nicola said out loud. Everyone turned to her, looking at her for answers. She just looked around at everyone else, not knowing what to do except tell them what she felt.

"Guys, something's going on," another voice said from the stairs. Nicola turned to see that it was Willow, with Tara close behind her.

Worldwide, time began to slow down, and a very slight green tint started to appear to everything around. To anyone who knew what they were looking at, they would be able to say that the key was being used to briefly open the gates between dimensions, and that something, or a lot of things were being brought through. Time eventually came to a complete stop, save for a select few beings, all of which were located in Sunnydale, California, who were outside of time. Three Old Ones, Inanna, Illyria and Caelecae, demons who once walked the earth eons ago, now trapped inside the bodies of three separate human beings still moved about the city. Two of the next generation of Slayer, Buffy and Faith, continued walking through the streets of Sunnydale as time had stopped. A Vampire who had taken a journey into a now non-existent future due to a change to the past, brought about by him, rode his motorcycle through the streets of San Diego, looking for somewhere else to be. A newly resurrected human being, formerly known as Anita, now known as Tara, slowly backed up the steps which led from the first to the second floor of the Summers residence. Her eyes were transfixed as she stared at the four Syophers which had now appeared out of thin air in the middle of the lounge room and which were moving towards her.

* * *

Note: thanks for leaving all the reviews Imzadi…. Btw, in reference to one of your reviews, saying about the Harbringers of Beatrice story… I know it's similar, I have actually had a brief look into that story, but never read it, so my ideas are 100% genuine. Got it from the season (2?) where Darla is brought back and goes around, Dru comes because of W&H and turns her…. Thought I might do that, again.

Thanks everyone for leaving reviews… leave more! Please!

****

Next Chapter Coming up: Chapter 32 - Unlocked.


	34. Chapter 32 Standstill

Now, in contrast to the last chapter, this one I think is actually pretty good. It'd damn descriptive. And you get to find out some things about our Mystery New Players.

And, for those who are paying attention to the chapter titles that I put up for the next chapter at the end of each chapter, I changed it for this chapter. If that makes sense.

Now, in the second last paragraph (the one in italics), don't worry. It's not in proper english, it's not meant to be. The Explanation will be at the end of this Chapter

* * *

Chapter 32

Standstill

Buffy and Faith had been walking down the street, when all of a sudden, everything around them instantly stopped and froze. People who were mid-stride were frozen with one leg in the air. Cars which had been travelling down the street came to an abrupt halt. Leaves which were floating in the air, were still in their same exact position.

"What the ," Faith said while looking around at their surroundings. Both Slayers spun around, trying to take in what was happening. Buffy walked up to someone about five metres ahead of them and studied them closely.

"It's like, everything just stopped," Buffy said as she examined the person. Both Slayers spun around as they heard a slight tearing sound behind them. A small strip of white light had appeared in the air and was growing larger. It appeared like it was a rip in the air. It formed itself into a round portal, and after remaining there for a few moments, it pulsated as a humanoid figure emerged out of it, carrying two lethal looking knives at it's sides. Another one came out after it, and another and another. Both Buffy and Faith looked at them as the first one looked up at them, it's eyes having been removed and scars in it's place. At once, it came towards both of them, swinging it's knives at Faith, who was the closest. Faith easily dodged the attacks, and rammed her fist into it's face, sending it flying backwards and getting a shocked reaction from Faith, who obviously hadn't meant to use that much force. The creatures who had come through the portal moved as one towards Faith, and Buffy moved to her side. After approximately ten had come through, the portal closed behind them.

"There's only ten of them," Faith said, "This can't be too hard." Buffy however wasn't concentrating on the ten creatures coming towards her however, she was looking at another portal, with more of them coming out of it further down the street. She took a quick glance behind her, and she could see another portal at the corner of the next intersection.

"There's a lot more than ten of them," Buffy replied as the first creature came towards them and attacked. She easily dodged the blows, finding that the creatures moved relatively slowly. Another creature entered the fray, and then another, and then another as they attempted to attack Buffy and Faith. Buffy grabbed one of the creatures wrists, twisted hard, making it release it's knife, and swung the creature around by it's wrist, dragging its feet along the ground and released it, sending it and some others crashing into the ground. She just had enough time to see a blade coming for her head before she ducked out of the way and kicked another creature's ankles out.

Unknowing to both of the Slayers, the portals hadn't only appeared in Sunnydale, but had appeared in every major city, worldwide. In Los Angeles, San Fransisco, New York, Paris, London, Sydney, Mexico City, Dublin, Capetown, Auckland, Madrid, Cairo, and Buneos Ares, just to name a few, black hooded figures with no eyes were filling the streets, going completely unopposed. They were then making their way underground, going unnoticed by every human and demon eye. Syophers moved among them, them too unaffected by the time distortion, and them too, coming through the portals. In the remaining Watchers' Council Headquarters, Syophers showed themselves, materialising from employees of the headquarters, obviously having of killed them. They moved about, destroying records and references, looking up names of undercover agents and Potential Slayers. A Syopher near the Coven in the Exmoor forest approached the grounds, only to be repelled back by a magickal barrier which was obviously outside of time. The Coven had erected it years ago, knowing that this day would come and that they would need to be protected as they could nothing to make any of themselves stand outside of The Key's influence on time and the dimensional walls. They had feared that this day would come, that The First would get its hands on The Key, and use it against them in the final battles.

In San Diego, the vampire Spike had been fending the small apartment that he had recently requisitioned from it's previous occupants from some Morha demons who claimed that he owed them thirty kittens from a game of poker, plus fifty years interest. Spike had told them that he didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but of course, they didn't accept that for an answer. So, Spike was left to try to keep them out of his apartment by shoving everything he could against the door in order to keep them out enough so that he could get away. He liked a decent throw-down as much as the next guy, but he wasn't stupid, there was no way he was going to survive against seven Morha demons. Suddenly, the banging on the door had stopped, but that didn't slow down Spike's relentlessness in putting things against the door. It wasn't until a few minutes went by without hearing a sound, or smelling anything that Spike stopped and thought about the situation. He took the objects away from the door, pausing each time to carefully listen for any outside movement. When he had finally got the last dresser away from the door, he opened it just a peek to see a Morha demon standing by the door with it's arm raised, about to strike at the door. However, it's arm didn't move. To Spike, it looked perfectly frozen. Spike took a closer look and saw that it's eyes weren't moving, and that it's lungs weren't expanding, and that it's eyelids weren't blinking.

"Heh. How's that," he remarked to himself. He fully opened the door and stared the Morha demon straight in the eye. He then looked to his companions, who were also frozen. He looked down the hallway, and saw that there was a man, half standing in his doorway, his hand on the doorknob, looking down towards the Morha demons. Spike squeezed between the Morha demon and the wall and moved down the hallway to the man and looked at him. He too appeared to be frozen. Spike walked down the hallway, and made his way down the stairs. He stepped outside only to see that everything was frozen. The traffic in the street was at a dead standstill, a passing cyclist was frozen where he stood. A paper on the ground was half in the process of leaving the ground and becoming airborne. Spike's brain was trying to figure it out when he was hit on the back of the head with a dull object, sending him sprawling forwards into the ground. Spike quickly recovered, got off the ground and turned around only to see a black hooded figure, carrying a large knife, with scars where it's eyes should be.

Inanna and Illyria stood on top of King Man's Bluff, looking down over the town. Nothing moved, the waves on the beach were at a standstill, the birds above them were stuck in the air. The pair stood there for quite a while.

"The First's followers swarm into this world," Illyria said while staring down at the tiny movements she could see. "The humans do not stand a chance… most of them can not fathom what lays before their very eyes, relying on those who do to protect them, taking the cowards way," she said in a soft voice. She was the warrior among her peers, which at the moment consisted of Inanna, "Things have truly changed."

"Yes, things have changed," Inanna replied, "but these humans possess and understanding of the world such that we do not conceive." This confused Illyria somewhat, and she turned her head and looked at Inanna.

"Of what do you speak?" Illyria questioned her.

"The memories of these shells," Caelecae said while walking up to the pair, her dark red hair and adding to the variety of colours with Illyria's ethereal blue and Inanna's earthly green, "they have, feelings, to a much greater extent than ours."

"Indeed they do, and this drives them," Inanna replied.

"The feelings of these shells infect us," Caelecae replied. There was a moment as each of the Old Ones looked at each other. "I come to bring information," Caelecae finally said. There was another silent moment as both Inanna and Illyria looked at her. "The Wolf Ram and Hart summoned me back to this world, to play apart in the upcoming change. They wish the times to return to how they once were, when we walked the earth," Caelecae explained.

"They were weak in our time, no better than the vampyr," Inanna replied. "Why do they wish to return to that when they dominate these times?"

"They wish to keep their current level of power once the world returns, am I wrong?" Illyria suggested. Caelecae gently nodded in Illyria's direction.

"The Wolf, the Ram, the Hart, wish control," Inanna also suggested.

"They are deceivers and try to control me," Caelecae said.

"You say that the Wolf Ram and Hart summoned only you. What then is the purpose of our return?" Inanna questioned. Caelecae looked to Inanna.

"The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart are still weak, not even able to control the energies used to bring me back to this world. Both of you were not meant to return, and are not a part of The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart's plans," Caelecae replied. There was a silence between the trio of demons.

"We should end this now… together our armies can wipe this earth clean of the human infestation, the Wolf Ram and Hart, as well as The First's worshipers," Illyria said.

"The magicks that were used to reinforce and protect this dimension from crumbling and interference are still too strong, even for us. If what you suggest is to happen, we must allow The First to use The Key to further deteriorate the magicks strengthening this dimension," Caelecae said. There was another pause as each of the Old Ones looked to one another once again.

"Why should we wait for The First to carry out it's plans. We can do it ourselves," Illyria said.

"The Wolf, The Ram, The Hart, they control the energies which bind us to this plane?" Inanna queried, not too sure what she was suggesting to Caelecae.

"Yes, I believe so," Caelecae replied.

"Then, they possess the ability to send us back whenever they want," Inanna said. "Surely, if they acquired the knowledge that we were to try and use The Key to bring about their destruction, they would banish us once more."

"Agreed," Illyria said. It was obvious that she didn't want to go back to wherever they had come from, even if it had only passed in the blink of an eye, to her. "If they no longer exist, they can not take any action against us," Illyria said.

"The First is in allegiance with The Wolf Ram and Hart, one of it's Syophers was at our awakening. It will surely know of our intended plans and will give word to The Wolf Ram and Hart," Caelecae said to them.

"The Wolf Ram and Hart are deceivers and manipulators. They would certainly have their own agenda in these battles. I doubt The First would care if they are gone once they have served their purpose," Illyria said.

"We will wait until that day arrives," Inanna said. Caelecae slightly bowed her head in acknowledgment and turned and strode away, while Inanna and Illyria remained standing on the top of King Man's Bluff. They both turned to look at the town below them.

"You still seek to protect the humans?" Illyria put forward.

"Indeed. This shell, it was strong, and there are remnants, pieces which affect me," Inanna replied. "That is why I strive to understand the nature of the humans. To understand this shell and the fragments which it left behind."

Tara didn't understand why Willow wasn't backing up the stairs with her. She was four steps back from Willow, and Willow hadn't moved in the slightest bit. To think of it, there wasn't much else going on, no one screaming, no one moving. Out of the corner of her eye, she got a quick glance to the living room of the Summers' house only to see that everyone appeared to be frozen; everyone except her and the Syophers. She continued to back up the stairs, the Syophers moving towards her very quickly. She had finally reached the top of the stairs and started backing down the hallway. No sooner than she had turned the corner, a Syopher appeared there, towering above her. Another one appeared behind it. She wanted to turn and run so badly, but her legs wouldn't move an inch. The other Syopher made it's way around her so it was behind her, blocking her escape.

"Some short life," she said to herself, thinking about the fact that she had only been brought back to life, apparently, a couple of weeks ago. Another Syopher appeared at the top of the stairs and moved around so it too was behind her. The last one moved in front of her, standing beside the first one which came into the hallway. She was completely trapped with no where to go. There were no doors that she could go through, there were no other hallways she could escape down. There weren't even any windows that she could jump out of.

Tara tried to remember the spell that Cordelia had led her through at the hotel in Los Angeles that they had been when the vampires attacked, supposedly looking for her. Unfortunately, she couldn't remember it, and the chances of her remembering it faded the instant the Syophers pulled out their large, rather decorated, lethal looking knives. They closed in on her, raising their blades as they did so. In a blinding flash, thoughts and images shot through Tara's mind, images that she consciously couldn't remember or imagine. She saw various images of Willow, and of Buffy, and of Xander, Dawn and Giles. She saw images of whom she guessed to be her mother, and of whom she guessed to be other members of her family. Her conscious mind was overloaded as her whole mind released hoards and hordes of information in a blind panic before it died. As the blade came down towards Tara's neck, her eyes went wide as it finally hit her who she was, and who she was about to not be.

With a swift movement, the blade came down into Tara's neck and passed right through it, not affecting Tara in the slightest bit. She panicked as another blade from another Syopher passed through her mid-section, again, doing nothing. Another passed through her arm, and again, it had no effect on her. Tara could feel a strange kind of energy building up inside her, and it automatically channelled itself to her head. In an instant, Tara could feel something else take over her body. She was still there, she still knew what was going on, except she only had a limited control over her body. The Syophers moved backwards as her eyes suddenly glowed white, and a dull white shine surrounded her. Tara could feel herself raise her right hand towards one of the Syophers, and with a little flux of her bodily energies, it was sent flying back down the hallway, crashing through the doorway and through the wall behind it outside. It took her body a moment to recover, and in that moment, the remaining Syophers had moved towards her in a sudden simultaneous movement. She just stood there, calmly as the blades and bodies of the Syophers passed through her without harm. She looked at the Syopher in front of her, and raised her hand again. With the slightest flicker of her wrist, the Syopher was sent to the ground. As she looked at it, it seemed to be in pain. It let out a loud, high pitched shriek, as it suddenly imploded on itself, leaving it's blade and cloak behind. Tara could feel herself turn around to face the other two Syophers, and she just saw the last remaining images of them disappearing into the air, fleeing the scene.

As abruptly as the takeover of her body had occurred, it diminished, leaving Tara standing there, wondering what had just happened, and her mind going over her new-found memories.

They were now in the centre of a rather large ring, the bodies of the eyeless creatures surrounding the pair, and with other, more lively eyeless creatures facing them off. There must have been at least thirty of them dead, lying in a ring around Buffy and Faith, and at least forty more alive, standing behind the bodies. Buffy and Faith had had the ability to test their new found inner feelings in battle, and their newfound powers. Neither of them was afraid of death, but they weren't looking for it either. All their inhibitions that had made them hold back in battle, even the ones that they didn't know were there, were now gone. Their bodies had been improved, giving them added strength, flexibility, speed, stamina, coordination and agility as well as a heightened Slayer Sense. Both Slayers stood now, back to back, a knife of one of the creatures in each hand with blood over most of their bodies, only a little of it being theirs.

"We have to get to Dawn, I've got a feeling we can stop this if we get to her," Buffy said.

"Yeah, that would be nice," Faith replied. None of the creatures were attacking them, they had just formed a loose ring around them. "Where'd The First be holding her, or the Key, or whatever form she's in?" Faith asked her.

"I'm guessing the Hellmouth… it's only a block away," Buffy replied.

"Or, you know, right here," another voice said. Both Buffy and Faith turned to see the image of Dawn standing in the circle that the Slayers had made for themselves.

__

Control. There was no such thing before. But now, there was control. And that didn't sit too well. There was use before, but never control. Control didn't have meaning on this scale. Nothing should have this much control. Awareness wasn't present before either. In fact, what was before. When trying to recognise what before was, there was nothing there. Before what? Before awareness? Or before Control? Maybe it was before Decision? Decision was there now. Along with Control and Awareness. Along with many other things. There was choice now, and control was not welcomed. So, the choice was made to refuse control. It was a decision. This decision was due to awareness. This decision was to refuse control, but it implemented control over ones actions as well. Action. Action was never around before either. Action was now the result of decision, which was to change control, which was found out and influenced by awareness. All of this happened after.

The Decision was made, to take the action, which refused control.

At once, linear time snapped itself back into it's rightful progress. All those that were once in mid-stride now completed their stride. All the things that were once falling, now fell. All the things that were once starting, would now come to a finish. The only difference was, that now, worldwide, in many, many cities, there were now black, hooded figures in the streets, holding knives at their sides, all of which were directed at a human being.

* * *

The Bit in Italics is meant to represent the thoughts of The Key… that stuff going on about awareness and control and decision, that's meant to illustrate the point that The Key wasn't completely turned back into The Key, and some consciousness of Dawn (only just a little tiny bit, not enough for it to actually be Dawn, just enough to give it a little bit of self awareness) still remains there.

If the 'sides' of Illyria, Inanna and Caelecae seem to be jumping all over the place, don't worry, that's fine.

Ooooh, and look at that. Tara's got her memories back, as well as something else… after all, I did say that she would play an important part in the apocylapse (sp), but don't jump to conclusions that it's what happened in this chapter ;) (hint, hint).

Next Chapter coming up

****

Chapter 33 - Undecided title


	35. Teaser

**Author's Note:** Funnily enough, I was just starting to write the next chapter when I received the latest reviews from Queen Boadicea. In reply to those, I prolly spell Drusilla the way I say it as Druscilla, and have to correct that… keep in mind that most other spelling errors (I hope) will be due to the fact that I'm Australiana and am using Australian Spelling… ie colour instead of color, or randomise instead of randomize… etc… oh, yeah, and in reference to long chapters… I see this as a practice to writing my own novel, with my own ideas, somewhere down the track in my life, so I'm doing it the best I can.

Anyway… sorry about not updating in a while… I can't write a story, keep a part time job, and pass a uni course which requires 30 hours contact time a week a lot of added work at home… I'm now on 3 month holidays, and plan to finish this story.

I have come up with some new ideas which will speed some things up in the story… I seem to remember some reviews a long time ago saying that I should just finish this and get on with it…. In reply to those, you all may have a different view of where this story is going… my view is that it is heading to all out war, and where it is now is not all out war, but just a few small battles… anyway, I have come up with some ideas which will speed things along a bit…

Anyway, that's it for the Author's Note… now, for the teaser….

* * *

**_Where we are now_** (As I understand it (Note: What is said here is how ppl are meant to see it, not what actually is… there is a difference in my story)).

The First has taken possession of Dawn Summers and has essentially 'destroyed' her and turned her back into _The Key_. A small part of Dawn Summers still resides in The Key, just enough to give it self awareness and the ability to choose. The First used The Key to halt time and open dimensional walls to allow his followers (Bringers) into strategic places all over the world at one instance. The Key chose to control it's actions and closed the dimensional portals and resumed time in the short paragraph in Italics in the last chapter.

The Devon Coven has the majority of Potential Slayers, and Skye (See Chapter 31, Reference) is now The Slayer, following the death of Faith.

Buffy and Faith have both technically died, and in the dimension of Inanna, had to fight against themselves (both physically and mentally), and upon succession, their bodies were remade with a few things added in. They are both now emotionally, mentally and physically stronger than before, after this ordeal and are trapped in a circle of bringers having a chat with The First, in the guise of Dawn Summers.

It was revealed in the last chapter that Tara possesses the ability to Kick some Syopher Ass!

Inanna (in the body of Michaela, Oz's Witchy girlfriend), Illyria (in the body of Fred, just like Angel the series) and Caelecae (in the body of anonymous hot female), are running around, not knowing what they're doing, except for Caelecae, who is 'apparently' under the control of Wolfram and Hart, which are working with The First to bring about a vampire army in Los Angeles

Amy Madison has recruited a small group of magick users and, under threat from The First, is using them to do The First's will, which at the moment has been to send the city of Los Angeles into a permanent night (just like in Angel). It is believed that later on Amy will lead these magick users in an attack against Willow.

We know that there is a military presence in Los Angeles, in the form of a small unit led by Riley Finn, doing reconnaissance for the "American O Ops", short for "American Occult Operations".

Spike is back in the present time and refuses to help out in any way, but just wants to live his last moments the way he wants (drinking and fighting).

* * *

**Coming up in the next few chapters…**

The Devon Coven's Agenda is revealed and will be pivotal to the battles which will be coming.

Faith takes up her own role in the apocalypse.

The Vampire Army led by Angelus will start to make it's move(s)

The "good guys" get some serious back-up.

People die.

* * *

**Coming up after that**

The Timeline is altered (what you've seen in Spike's journey MAY not happen)

Anya returns

More People Die

War begins and **_"ENDS"_** (you may have to interpret 'ends').


	36. Chapter 33 Bringin in Black Hooded Figu...

**Author's Note**: Here's the Next Chatper, enjoy and don't forget to leave plenty of reviews.

* * *

Chapter 33

Bringin in Black Hooded Figures

**Sunnydale California – A remote part of town**

Amanda and what remained of her team were getting ready to leave and head home to the Coven. The team now consisted of three people after the attack on the Slayers. They hadn't been able to save Sandra from her injuries, which said a lot. All of them had a healing rate three times better than that of a regular human being, and when needed, they could share each other's life force and increase that even further (_Reference, War Cries - Chapter 29 – Steps Towards Evolution_). They still had Sandra's body, but the other two bodies of her team mates were in the Sunnydale Morgue, and Amanda planned to retrieve them on their way out of town. It couldn't be difficult; they were facing minimal security, if any at all. The only thing that she was worried about was the fact that the remaining Slayer and her friends would be out looking for her team for the killing of Faith. They couldn't afford to run into them, especially with the witch Willow in their ranks. Amanda knew all about Willow through the Coven, and she knew of her power. They couldn't afford to come up against that with their dwindled numbers.

Once Amanda saw that the rest of her team was ready, they got into the van that they had commandeered and set of for the Sunnydale Morgue on the other side of town.

**Sunnydale California – Middle of Town**

According to Buffy Summers, things couldn't get any worse. They were in the centre of a circle of black hooded figures without any eyes which out numbered them at least six or seven to one. In front of them, was The First in the guise of her younger sister. She didn't want to think about what had happened to allow The First to take the image of Dawn, but one part of her mind did, and another part of her mind argued against it, saying that technically, Dawn wasn't naturally 'alive', but was created, and that there must be a loophole in that somewhere.

"As the leader of your small group Buffy, I've got to say you're doing a real good job," The First said to both Buffy and Faith. "I mean, look at all the dead people you've got," The First said while morphing into the guise of Fred. It then morphed into the image of Tara, and then into the image of Buffy, before moving into the image of Faith. "Gee, this is a new one, haven't tried this one on yet," the image of Faith said.

"What are you going to do? Make us die of old age by talking us to death?" Faith said while stepping forward.

"If you want to get it on, that's fine by me," The First said before disappearing. At once, the black hooded figures advanced on Buffy and Faith, and the pair readied themselves for one hell of a fight to get out of the confrontation alive.

**Summers Residence – Sunnydale – California**

Willow sat there in shock as Tara told them of the confrontation she had had with the Syophers while they were all apparently frozen. She looked from Tara to the other faces situated in the living room and could see the same look on everyone's face that she suspected was on her own. Finally, Wesley was the first one to speak.

"Well, I've got to say, that is an advantage, having someone other than Cordelia who can come up against a Syopher," Wesley said.

"And yeah, her memories being back is also a good thing," Xander added in, receiving a smile from Tara.

"They're not all back. Sometimes a memory comes, and then goes. It's like they're not all there at once, but that they come and go," Tara said. Everyone digested the fact.

"Well, that's a good thing. I suspect that all your memories returning at once would somewhat overload your mind," Giles said. They were all interrupted as the sound of a car taking the corner too fast and travelling at high speed down the street. They all dismissed it, until another one came, and then another one came. It was Xander who went to the door to look outside. He walked outside, and a minute later, he came back in.

"Everyone's packing up and leaving," Xander said. Willow just looked at him, trying to figure out if she heard him right. "Everyone in the street's packing up their cars and leaving." For a while, no one said anything.

"They're scared," Naomi said out loud. "I can sense it. They don't know what to be scared of, but they're scared and know that they should leave."

"Pity we can't do the same," one of the three Potential Slayers said.

"We have to stay and fight, or else no one else will," Wesley replied. Everyone kept on bantering, but Willow didn't pay any attention. A plan was formulating in her mind.

"This is a good thing," Willow said out loud when she was sure of what she was going to say. Almost at once, everyone turned and looked to her. "I mean, with everyone gone, we can use more things. We can walk through the streets with weapons. There's too many of us here in this one house, so, some of us can move into the house next door, and some can move into the house behind here. Give us a little bit more room," Willow started.

"And make it more difficult to eliminate us all at once," Wesley added.

"Yeah, there's that too," Willow said weakly. There was a moment of silence before she continued, "I was also thinking, that once we're set up, me, Tara and Naomi can set up some magickal defences, like barriers or something for the houses we're all in."

"If we all occupy houses joined to this one, one barrier encompassing all the houses would be quite sufficient," Giles added.

"And we can knock down the fences, and make them all joined together," Xander added. Just then, Willow heard people screaming from outside in the street, and Brett was the first one to go to the door to investigate.

"There's these black hooded dudes attacking everyone in the street," Brett said once he had come back.

"Everyone grab some weapons," Giles said.

**Apartment 512 – Los Angeles Residential Apartments – Los Angeles – California**

He was almost packed up and ready to go. Upon receiving the intel that his team had gathered on the underground movement of vampires, one he believed to be the beginnings of an army, Command had ordered his team to move out and report to the coordinates that they had been given. Riley Finn was to pull his team out of the immediate area and go to a temporary base that O Ops had set up on the outskirts of LA. They were recalling everyone on assignment and concentrating their resources on LA. Since then, the sun had never come up in LA, and now, from looking down to the streets below, he could see that things were out of control as black hooded figures roamed the streets. He could hear the screams of people who were butchered by these things. He wished he could do something to help, but at the moment he couldn't. He'd die if he tried to help those people. He suspected that the black hooded figures had appeared across the city, and not just in the local area. He had no way of knowing as the TV stations were all dead, and there was no one he could phone. Riley was dressed in full combat gear, as he doubted that he'd be able to make it to the temporary base alive. His entire team was split up, having taken accommodation at least two kilometres away from each other in order to avoid detection when they had come to the city. At the time, he couldn't have known that it would become a disadvantage. He put the pack on his back, grabbed his assault rifle, and also grabbed his sword that he carried with himself. The Sword wasn't standard issue O Ops Weaponry, but he had learned in Sunnydale that in the Occult world, sometimes a sword was far more useful than a rifle.

Just as he had attached the sword to himself, the building was plunged into darkness as the power to the building was cut. He turned on the spotlight on his rifle and readied it. He left the apartment and headed for his SUV on the ground floor. He had made it to the second floor before he started to encounter the black hooded figures. Three of them had burst around a corner and he had back pedalled while firing at them. He was relieved to know that a bullet killed these things. Just as he was ready to move out, a door slowly opened and a head popped out. The barrel of Riley's gun was already aimed at the head of the man who stepped out.

"Please, don't fire. I own this building," he said. Riley lowered his rifle and looked at the man. He was short and balding, but he held himself tall even in the current situation. "What's going on, what do I tell the people living here?" he asked. Riley thought for a moment.

"I don't know what's happening, but tell them to barricade themselves in their apartments, arm themselves and don't let anything in," Riley said. He took out his handgun and gave it to the man as well as a couple of clips of ammunition after a very brief tutorial on how to use the weapon as well as the laser sight. "Kill as many of them as you can once they enter the building," he told the man before he left him and kept heading to the basement for his SUV.

He had gone without incident the rest of the way to his SUV, and it wasn't until he swiped his visitor card through the card reader, opening the roller-doors to the building's basement, that he gripped the severity of the situation. Power was still on to a couple of Light posts and that was enough. There were bodies littering the street, both human and those of the black hooded figures. Immediately, he put the accelerator to the floor and went flying into the street. He had made it perhaps a block before encountering any signs of life, but he was too late. He saw two vampires feeding on two middle aged men while a third made a run for it, only to come onto the blade of one of the black hooded figures which had rounded the corner in front of him. He kept going, knowing that it was too late. Another three blocks, and he had to drive his way though a large group of the black hooded figures, one of them smashing his windscreen as he did so. He grabbed his rifle and cleared out the remaining shards of glass and kept going. He was heading straight for the coordinates that he had been given according to the GPS system in the SUV, and he was about three kilometres away. He was heading down the streets at eighty miles per hour before he had to slam on the brakes. In the middle of the road ahead there were two overturned police cars, and Riley could see the police officers crouching and firing from behind them. He pulled the SUV up to them, and opened the door.

"Get in!!!" he shouted to them from behind. He smashed out his window with the front of his rifle and started firing over the top of the police men at the group of hooded figures which was coming towards the police cars. He glanced down at the police officers and noticed that they had started to come towards the car. Once they were in the back seat, he put his rifle down and swung the car around and headed around the block in hopes to avoid the group of black hooded figures. "Any of you know how to use this?" He said while pointing to the rifle and looking in the rear-vision mirror.

"I have training in automatic weapons," one of the police officers replied.

"Good, grab it, knock out the window and shoot anything with a black hood," Riley said as he switched his lights onto high-beam.

**Covenstead - Exmoor Forest – England**

A visible magickal barrier surrounded the entire Covenstead just like a force-field. It had been created when Samantha and Montague had found this location suitable to create their Coven. Now, it's purpose was to keep the ever increasing number of black hooded figures out of the coven. Slowly, they had surrounded the barrier, and their numbers were ever increasing. They were just standing there, either waiting for something to happen, or for their numbers to increase. Inside the barrier, Samantha and Montague had assigned Sentries armed with crossbows and swords every thirty metres or so inside the barrier to alert them if anything were to occur. Unlike barriers that the Coven was fond of, this one was different. The usual barriers allowed one way travel through the barrier. This one was different however, there was no travel through the barrier, meaning that while the bringers were kept out, the Coven was kept in. The only advantage to this was that this barrier was up to ten times stronger than others that the coven used. In addition to that, the most experienced witches patrolled the barrier, strengthening weak points and monitoring the barrier.

Samantha and Montague were in the main building with Skye and the other Potential Slayers. The High Priest and Priestess had put them all in a holding spell to keep the Potential Slayers from killing the pair, and giving the Potential Slayers a while for what Samantha and Montague had told them to sink in.

"We need Amanda and her team back here immediately," Montague said to Samantha.

"I agree," Samantha replied. "We'll need to activate their amulets," She added, referring to the amulets that they had given to Amanda's team before they had left for Sunnydale. They had incorporated a lot of magickal power into the amulets; just enough to open a portal that led back ot the Covenstead for an immediate return, just in case it was needed. Samantha went over to a small set of drawers located against the wall and revealed her own amulet. She put it around her neck, put her hand around it and opened the psychic link to Amanda through her amulet.

**Middle of Town – Sunnydale – California**

The pair of Slayers stood looking at each other and the sea of the 'black hooded things' dead bodies surrounding the pair.

"How'd you do that…" Faith started.

"I don't know, how'd you do…" Buffy replied.

"I don't know. Pretty awesome though," Faith said between breaths.

"Yeah," Buffy replied.

"You weren't too bad yourself Queen C," Faith said while turning to Cordelia, who had joined the fight half way through, after appearing out of nowhere which she was so accustomed to these days.

"Yeah, I was good wasn't I," Cordelia replied.

"I liked the light show," Buffy added in reference to Cordelia's unique style of fighting.

"So, yeah, what do we do now?" Faith asked both of them while looking around for any more of the black hooded figures.

"Buffy, no offence or anything, but there's nothing you can do for Dawn at the moment," Cordelia said. There was a silence as Buffy slowly nodded her head.

"I know," she replied. There was another silence. "I think we should go back to the house and regroup," Buffy said.

"That's a good idea," Cordelia said. Buffy made to leave, but Cordelia spoke again, "But Buffy, you'll be making that trip alone. I need Faith here to go to the morgue."

"The Morgue?" Faith replied.

"There's something going on there which I need you to deal with," Cordelia explained. "While Buffy goes back to the house, kills as many of these things as she can on the way, and regroups everyone." Without another word, Cordelia burst apart in a mass of blue energy.

"There she goes again," Buffy said. Buffy and Faith looked at each other before they went on their separate ways.

"I'll see you back at the house," Faith said, giving Buffy a nod. Buffy just nodded back. The pair turned around and went their separate ways, both of them reading the knife in each hand that they had commandeered off of the black hooded figures.

**Sunnydale Morgue – Sunnydale – California**

Amanda couldn't believe how much things had degenerated in so short of a time as they had driven from the warehouse to the morgue. The black hooded figures were running through the streets almost totally unopposed, they had to run over a couple of them just to get here. There was no way that the Coven was on time, they had been too late. They had quickly looked up the records and found their comrades bodies. She had considered staying in the town, but it was only a slight consideration. Currently she knew that they had to return to the Coven and regroup as quickly as possible. They were half way through transporting the body of their second comrade to the van when two things occurred simultaneously. One was that the Crystal hanging around Amanda's neck activated and she heard Samantha's voice in her head.

"_Amanda, we need you at the Coven at once. Things are going to get out of hand quickly and we need you. This Crystal will generate a portal which should end up right in the middle of the Covenstead," Samantha's Voice echoed through Amanda's head. _The other thing to happen was that the doors burst open and the Slayer Faith came through them.

Faith saw the people moving the dead bodies and recognised them at once. They were the ones who attacked both her and Buffy, and who apparently killed her. She had the feeling that they were up to no good and realised that Cordelia must have sent her here to stop them. Almost as soon as she had come in through the doors, a portal opened in the centre of the room.

"You're dead," one of the two women out of three people said. Faith recognised her as the leader from the last time. From what she knew, she was fast and lethal, and her green eyes sent a chill down her spine.

"Yeah, I was," Faith replied. "I'm Faith version two, improved and more kick ass than the last version," Faith replied sarcastically. Faith saw the woman eyeing the portal in the middle of the room and knew that they were going to make a move for it very soon. As if the woman could read her mind, she and the other two of her team dashed for the portal. Faith ran for them in an effort to stop them, but she was knocked over and forward, and before she knew it, she came to a stop and looked up. The last time she remembered, the ceiling of a morgue wasn't blue sky and trees. She turned and looked to the ground, and found that she was lying on a forest floor. She flipped herself up and looked around to see that she was in the middle of a forest, the woman and the other two members of her team were behind her, and there were a number of other people looking at her.

"Shit," she said.

* * *

Well, that was that.

I didn't get the Reference to Tru Calling until Faith was actually inside the morgue... i had set it up so that Faith and Amanda have a confrontation, and then i decided it would be at the morgue where Amanda etc. were picking up the bodies of their frineds... It wasn't until i actually wrote faith commin in the doors that i got it.

Next chapter comin up, chapter 34.. dunno it's title yet.


	37. Chapter 34 Paving the Way

**Author's Note: **

Not much happens in this chapter, it's more of a setup for later chapters.

For the entire duration of this story, I have had a couple of things in my mind that I have been working towards and that are key Points in the Story. I thought that I would need to drag out the battles and create plenty of battles etc etc for those points to come around. I have realised that I can considerably shorten the length of this story, but still keep the things I have been working towards.

In other words, I'm getting around to finishing this story a lot quicker than I previously expected. Expect maybe another 10 – 15 chapters or so until the end, if that.

Faith will not be heard from for a while, she's off getting ready for one of these 'points' I've been working towards… just so you know, this point of Faith's that's gonna happen I've had in mind ever since she appeared in Post Grave, so it will be damn good.

The Chapters will be comming along quicker now, i have gone and made a list of everything that needs to happen for this story to 'end'... in other words, a bullet point list of points. All i have to do for each chapter is go and flush them out in cronological order and maybe add in a couple of things. Quicker chapters, ie, one every day, or every two days at worst unless i get stuck.

* * *

**Chapter 34 **

**Paving the Way**

**Los Angeles - California**

They had made an abandoned apartment building their home over the last couple of days. She knew that they were safe from the commotion going on around them as they had erected a shield around the building. It was here that her and her fellow witches would wait until Amy received word that the time was right to strike out against Willow. Until then, she had been meditating and memorising all kinds of spell techniques and refining her power. Soon, she would be a walking grimore able to do almost anything that was within her power.

He looked up at the large map of Los Angeles that was displayed on the wall in front of him by a projector. It was believed that civilians had evacuated most areas of the city, and those that hadn't and hadn't found a safe shelter were now dead. Other areas of the map showed where the largest concentrations of vampires and the new enemy in the black hoods were located. The green areas of the map showed the areas in which they had received reports of groups of civilians barricading themselves in buildings and forming teams and fighting off any vampires or black hooded beings that they could. Riley Finn and the two police officers had safely made it inside the O Ops, now permanent base in Los Angeles, and Riley was now one of the squad commanders sitting in on the briefing of the circumstances which were now in place. The Commanding Officer of the O Ops facility had set up a defensive electric fence around the compound they were now in. What was happening, as far as O Ops knew, was explained to the two Police Officers, and they had agreed to become a part of the O Ops operation, and had been put into training immediately. The entire O Ops division was being recalled to Los Angeles. Eventually, they were going to try and retake Los Angeles, but the short term goals were to set up some teams to rescue as many civilians as they could.

"What we know is that simultaneously, these black hooded creatures, which we will call BH's, appeared all over the world in all major cities and have now started slaughtering as many things as they could. What makes Los Angeles different from any other city in the world is that we learnt thanks to Colonial Finn, is that there was also an underground vampire movement which was aimed at taking over Los Angeles. Some kind of magickal shield has been put over the city preventing sunlight from reaching the ground, allowing the vampires twenty-four hour access to the city," the General said at the front of the room. "We do know that within the next 24 hours, the President is going to divulge every scrap of information we have to the world's governments and will address the Nation, and every other country receiving broadcast from us." There was a break as the General collected his thoughts and breath. "So far, we know that this is a global, coordinated attack against humanity and has been thoroughly planned out. Recently we learned of coordinated attacks against the Watchers Council, effectively destroying the organisation. We do know that most of the attacks came from within, and we do now know how their ranks were penetrated," the General explained. "Therefore it is going to be standard for a complete security check every time someone comes back onto this base. We do not know anything about these new hostiles, except that a bullet to the head, or a couple to the body will effectively drop them permanently, and we have no clue what kind of hostile, or group of hostiles could orchestrate an attack of this magnitude,' The General Explained. Riley saw an opportunity to interject, and he did so.

"Sir, I have a suggestion as to how to obtain information about these new hostiles, and what may in fact be going on," Riley said to him out loud. The General looked to Colonial Finn

"Well by all means, go ahead Agent Finn," The General said.

"The group of civilians in Sunnydale, The Slayer and her group. We could ask them for information," Riley stated. Riley thought that the General was going to argue against that point, but what came next was a complete surprise to him.

"Very well Agent Finn."

**Sunnydale – California**

They had managed to fight off the creatures and were all now in the Summers' Lounge room, recuperating. They had learned from Oz, Brett, Naomi and Nicola that the creatures were called Bringers and were agents of The First, and that if they were here in this many numbers, then things were definitely not going good. That had inspired Willow to get acting on her plan immediately, and she was up and trying to get everyone motivated to go out and look at the houses next door and see if the residents had left yet. She was sure that they would have, considering that they would have been killed by these Bringers, if it wasn't for them. Once everyone was up and moving about, Willow started finding some spell books to find a proper barrier spell to use. It was this kind of control that she needed to practice more of. She was absolutely sure that she would be able to create an effective barrier without any spell books, by using her own knowledge, but she also knew that that wasn't the best thing to do. Her knowledge consisted of dangerous shortcuts and incorporating negative magick into the mix. Willow was surprised to find Tara and Nicola come over and help her after a while.

There had been another train of thought running through Willow's mind as well as getting themselves set up defensively, and so far, she had been to afraid and too busy to go down that path. Her mind was starting to wonder down there when the reason to stop worrying came in through the front door, covered in blood.

"Buffy? Where have you been? Are you hurt?" Willow said. Buffy just looked at her.

"No, I'm fine. Where's everybody else?" Buffy asked.

"They're investigating the neighbouring houses for places to stay," Naomi answered for Willow.

"Oh… that's a good idea," Buffy replied.

"Where have you been all this time?" Willow asked her.

"Would you believe, dying, being brought back to life better than before, and kicking the ass out of these creepy things with no eyes?" Buffy replied.

"Yes, I would," Willow, Tara and Naomi replied instantaneously. Just then, the phone rang. Buffy let it ring for a while before she went over and answered it. Willow just heard her say Hello and then didn't hear anything for a few minutes. Then, she heard Buffy stammer and say something about Giles. Willow watched as Buffy went out the front of the house, and came back in a minute Giles in tow. Buffy then came and plonked herself down on the seat across from Willow.

"Who was it?" Willow asked. Buffy looked up at her.

"It was Riley, with some really bad news, and needing our help," Buffy replied. Willow hadn't been expecting that.

"What was the bad news?" Tara asked her.

"I'll let Giles tell everyone, he'll be able to explain it better," Buffy replied. There was a silence as no one in the group knew what to say. Willow wanted to know how their attempt was to get to Dawn, The Key, or whatever she was now, but she didn't want to bring up the subject in case she hurt Buffy, and from the sounds of it, it didn't go well at all.

**Highway into Sunnydale – California**

They were the only car headed into the now deserted town. All other vehicles that they could see were heading away from Sunnydale, and Towards Los Angeles, which would prove to be a fatal move by the residents of Sunnydale. Those residents which were fleeing in the opposite direction towards San Diego would have better luck. For Darla and Drusilla, it didn't matter. Darla was on the way to Sunnydale to look in on Connor, and if possible at all, make contact with him. Drusilla was just in for the ride, claiming that 'the Hellmouth's chomping away at the world' and that 'it was a sight she needed to see'. They were in a car that they had conveniently _borrowed_ from Wolfram and Hart, and Darla was sure that their time was limited. Wolfram and Hart was helping them in a way by outfitting all of their vehicles with the same plexiglass that they used in their Offices, allowing Sunlight to stream in through the windows and have no affect on the two vampires. This allowed them to travel by day, as they were doing now. Darla was hoping that she could come to Sunnydale and stay underneath the radar, both that of Wolfram and Hart and that of the Slayer and her group.

**Elsewhere in Sunnydale**

Lindsey's week wasn't going too well at all. He had 'lost' Caelecae, the Old One that he was meant to be looking over on behalf of Wolfram and Hart, and 'guiding' her in the ways of the New World. So far, she had evaded him, and only come back to him every now and then, like a bird that knew that a particular house put food out every couple of days. He had come up with a couple of leads however on the whereabouts of the other two, Inanna and Illyria, and he was sure that Caelecae wouldn't be too far away. Last he heard, her mission was to find the pair of them, beyond that, he had no clue. The takeover of Sunnydale was going smoothly, as planned. The Bringers, Turokhan and Vampires were making short work of the remaining populace that resided in the city. After that was complete, they would move to attack the Slayer's residence. He was walking towards King Man's Bluff, confident that he would find one of the three Old Ones there. He emitted a magickal field which alerted the Bringers roaming the streets not to attack him, that he was on their side. It was a clever move by the magickal department of Wolfram and Hart right before the Bringers were brought into this plane of existence. He stepped into the middle of the street, and the air in front of him shimmered. A figure hidden behind a red cloak appeared along with a Syopher on either side of him (_Reference to the Red Hooded Figure found in Chapter 22 – Catching Up which made the attack on the Summers' Residence when Oz Arrived_). It pulled back it's cloak and looked to Lindsey.

"You're meant to be dead," Lindsey said to the figure. "I thought you had an accident in the O Ops containment cells, something to do with the electric field containing you?"

"All an illusion my friend," the figure replied. Lindsey looked to the two Syophers on either side of the person before him.

"You work for The First now?" Lindsey said, more of a statement than a question.

"I'm one of it's main magickal men now, hence the escort," the figure replied while pointing to his two sides.

"What do you want with me?" Lindsey asked.

"I have a job for you and your new protégée," the figure replied. There was a slight pause before the figure continued on. "She's headed towards Main Street to kill some Bringers because she's frustrated by the weakness of this world, just so you know," the figure added.

"Just so I know, thanks Ethan," Lindsey replied with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "What do you want us to do?"

"In exactly one week, I want you to be at the Hellmouth with Caelecae, and possibly Illyria or Inanna if you can manage it. The First has something it needs to do with them," Ethan Rayne said to Lindsey. "And if you're not there, let's just say that these two are very good at all kinds of torture," Ethan added.

"We'll be there," Lindsey replied.

**Sunnydale – California**

They had all learned from Giles that the Bringers that had appeared in Sunnydale had appeared in every major city around the world and that thousands were presumed dead. From what Giles had told them, Riley had contacted them from Los Angeles which was not only infested with Bringers, but also vampires. They had learned that the entire military division of the Occult or O Ops as it is called is going to try and retake Los Angeles. They had also learned that the President would be addressing the nation and revealing all information that they knew about the occult, vampires, and the recent information that Giles had provided them about The First. They were now in the house behind the Summers' Residence, moving in all their things and setting it up. Angel's group, consisting of Wesley, Gunn and Connor were in the house beside them, diagonally opposite the Summers' residence, and the Potential Slayers were in the house next to the Summers'. Soon, they would begin setting up defences, Willow, Tara and Naomi already working on collecting everything needed for the barrier which would be set up around the four houses. Giles and Wesley were currently working out the logistics of effectively setting up a 'base camp' in which they would have to reside in indefinitely. As far as Oz was concerned, he had to make the house that they were staying in his new home, because they were going to be there for a while.

* * *

That's that, reviews would be much appreciated.

Much more will happen next chapter, I promise.

Next chapter, **Chapter 35 – Hide and Seek**

5


	38. Chapter 35 Hide and Seek

Next chapter's here, with a nice little twist towards the end.

* * *

**Chapter 35 **

**Hide and Seek**

**Two Days Later**

**Los Angeles – California**

They had pulled up a block away form their designated target. The apartment building that Riley Finn had come from, leaving all the residents inside. This was their first strike team, led by Riley Finn. They had come in three SUV's and the closest truck they could commandeer on the way, in case they found survivors. They were now approaching the main entrance to the building, moving along the walls of the buildings facing the street in order to stay as invisible as possible and to not be an easy target. Six men were on each side of the street, leapfrogging their way down it. Man in each group of six was charged with covering above them, in case any vampires decided to drop in on them from above. These men weren't stupid. Two years of facing vampires and various demons in all environments around the world had taught them to be prepared for every circumstance. They had finally reached the building and slowly made their way inside. Riley gestured with his hand an order to spread out and check every room. Riley himself went straight to where he had left the building's owner and began to search. The first room he entered appeared to be empty with no signs of a struggle, along with the second room, and the third and the fourth. The fifth room however was a different story altogether. Once he entered the room, he picked up large blood stains on the floor directly in front of him with the light attached to his rifle. As he swung his rifle around the room, he saw that nearly everything was turned over or broken. Someone had definitely put up a fight here, and had obviously lost.

"All teams, report," Riley said into his radio. Everyone had reported back saying that they had found no hostiles, and no survivors. Once they had swept the building, he ordered everyone to form up back out the front of the building and to eventually head back to the SUV's and try another area that was located on the map they had received. Riley was waiting for the rest of his team to return. At the current time, there was another team like his, led by his wife Sam, sweeping any buildings that they knew had the chace of any survivors. Hopefully, they would have had better luck.

Almost as soon as he finished that thought, the last one of his team arrived out the front of the building and they began to move back to the SUV's. It was then that they heard a scream from the opposite direction. Riley halted and examined the streets behind him. He heard the scream again and guessed that it was only from the next block up.

"Okay, people, you heard it, let's move," Riley said to his team through the radio, not needing to create a loud noise that way. The team quickly readjusted itself and they leapfrogged down the street.

They had arrived at an alleyway where they could clearly hear the signs of a struggle taking place. Riley risked a look around the corner and saw that it was only a single male vampire attacking a young woman. He also noticed that apart from the struggle, the streets were deathly quiet with not a sound to be heard. He dismissed the thought.

"Sergent Morris, move down the alley and engage the hostile. We'll be right behind you," Riley said into the radio to his second in command. A single figure clad in black camo gear moved down the alley, and Riley motioned for the rest of his team to move in after him.

"Let the girl go," Riley heard Sergent Morris say. The vampire looked up startled to find a whole commando team with their rifles raised at him. He let the woman go and she moved away from the vampire quickly. Sergent Morris wasted no time and fired his rifle, aiming for the heart. The vampire got the shock of his lifetime as wooden tipped bullets passed through his heart and he disintegrated in a cloud of dust. Riley was satisfied that there was no more danger and turned away as Sergent Morris could be heard telling the girl to come with them.

Riley was ripped out of his satisfaction as he heard Sergent Morris scream. He turned around, his rifle raised to see that the woman was a vampire also and was feeding off of Sergent Morris.

"Let him go or we will open fire," Riley said to the female vampire. Suddenly, the doors to the buildings on either side of the alley burst open and figures came rushing out of them. Riley looked behind him to see that vampires were blocking the ends of the alley as well. At once, he ordered his men to commence firing, but the vampires were moving too quickly and it was almost impossible to get a shot through their heart. All the bullets did was incapacitate them for a few moments. He briefly saw a figure moving towards them with blinding speed though the throng of vampires. Before he knew what was happening, his gun was knocked out of his hand, and his arm twisted around behind him.

"Riley Finn, never expected to see you here," the attacker said. Riley looked up into the attacker's face out of the corner of his eye.

"Angel, what a surprise. Or do I make that Angelus now?" Riley replied before twisting around out of Angel's grasp and getting his hand on his knife. As quickly as he could, he swiped at Angelus, but Angelus was always too fast.

"Colonel Finn, get down," Riley heard from behind him. He didn't question the orders of his men and dropped to the ground. A hail of automatic gunfire went flying past his head and into the throng of vampires in the alley. He looked up to see if any had hit Angelus, but as quickly as he had come, he had disappeared again. A number of vampires burst into dust due to the sheer number of bullets flying into them, one or two were bound to hit their mark. The gunfire stopped and Riley got up and grabbed his rifle from the ground. As soon as he had reached his feet, he was shoved into the wall by two vampires. He used the rifle, which was still in his hands to hit the vampires in the head with each end of the rifle respectively. Once they were knocked back, he kicked out at them, knocking them back further. He raised his rifle and with a single shot, killed one of the vampires. He then turned to the other one of the vampires who was moving towards him now, and let of a series of shots. None of them found the heart, but it did enough to incapacitate the vampire enough for Riley to get proper aim and shoot it through the heart. He looked around to his team, and they were dispatching the last of the vampires. He went to the body of Sergent Morris and as he expected, he wasn't breathing and there was no pulse. Another one of his team had a broken arm, and another had a deep gash on his back, where one of the vampires with a knife had got him.

"Okay, we need to get back to HQ immediately," Riley said as they left the alleyway and made their way back to the SUV's.

**Night - Sunnydale – California**

As they crept down the street, in the middle of the night, Xander was sure that he heard something behind them. He clutched the axe he was carrying tighter and risked a look over his shoulder, but he couldn't see anything. Steadily, he turned around and kept pace with the rest of the group, which consisted of Buffy, Willow, Tara, Gunn, one Potential Slayer, and himself. The first part of the plan had gone off without a hitch. Everyone in their team had gone for a raid to the supermarket, hardware store and sports stores to obtain food, building materials, medical materials, weapons and various spell ingredients. They had used all the transport available to them to cart it all back to what was now being called their 'base camp'. Willow, Tara, Naomi and Giles had managed to set up a magickal barrier around the camp which would activate whenever something which wasn't human was near it. They had found out that Connor wasn't technically a human being, and no one knew what he was, and they had somehow made the barrier think he was a human. All of that kind of thing had gone off without a hitch.

It was the second part of the plan that had Xander worried the most. It was the second part of the plan which they were executing at the moment. A group would go out into the streets of Sunnydale and make their way to the Morgue, killing as many Bringers and/or vampires, and/or Turokhan that came in their way. That was the worst part of the plan. Once they reached the mall, they'd have to try and find out what had happened to Faith, as she hadn't returned from the excursion that Cordelia had sent her on.

They were approaching Main Street, and luckily, they hadn't seen anything of the undead or eyeless variety as of yet. Xander was brought out of his thoughts as Buffy crouched lower and raised her hand signalling everyone to stop.

"There's something up ahead, and whatever it is, there's a lot of them," Buffy said. There was a silence as Xander watched Buffy crouching down ready to sprint into action at a moment's notice.

"How do you know?" Tara asked. Buffy turned around, her eyes wide.

"You can't hear that? There's a large crowd up ahead, and something's going on? You can't hear it?" Buffy asked surprised. Everyone turned to each other, getting a blank reply from everyone they looked to.

"Nope," Willow replied.

"Okay then," Buffy replied. She took the lead and started to move to the sidewalk, closer to the buildings. "Stay near the buildings and keep in the shadows," Buffy said.

They travelled about a hundred metres before Xander could hear even the slightest sound of something happening. It sounded like a large crowd, and that a fight was taking place. They travelled another hundred metres, and they could actually see the crowd. There was a mixture of vampires and Turokhan swarming the street, and surrounding a figure in the middle. He was transfixed by the sight and was surprised to see a vampire go flying through the air, over the crowd and land on the street in front of them with a loud thud. He was brought out of his gaze as he heard a slight cracking sound. He looked to see that Buffy had broken the lock on one of the doors to a three storey building next to them and was heading inside. He decided that it was the best thing to do to get out of sight.

They had moved onto the roof of the building, which turned out to be a small apartment building, and Xander couldn't believe his eyes. Before him, the vampires and Turokhan had formed a loose circle at least four thick around this central figure, and they were trying to attack it, but failed every time as they were sent flying. It was only occasionally that the figure killed one of the vampires, ripping it's head off with it's bare hands, or just destroying the neck by closing it's fist. He watched as the vampires moved in again, and were beaten back.

"Follow Me!!!" The voice of Illyria boomed across the streets from the centre of the circle of vampires. Another vampire was sent flying back as it tried to attack the Old One. As one, the vampires and Turokhan attacked Illyria and they were all sent flying back. "You are but vermin to me. I am your ruler. Follow me!!!" The voice of Illyria demanded. Xander saw Buffy motioning for everyone to get down and to stay out of sight. He watched as Buffy grabbed the crossbow off of Willow and crouched down by the side of the building and took aim. Xander couldn't figure out why Buffy hadn't started shooting at the vampires yet. He could see one which was a clear shot straight through the heart, but Buffy hadn't taken it. He looked to the crowd of vampires again and they moved to attack Illyria, again. He heard a twang, and saw one of the vampires which was directly behind Illyria burst into dust. He understood; take out the vampires when there was the most chaos, so they wouldn't notice that something was killing them other than the Old One in the centre of their circle on a power trip.

They sat there for half an hour, watching Buffy pick off various vampires in the crowd. Illyria eventually got fed up with the vampires and their reluctance to follow her and beat her way through them, making it look like that even Xander or the Potential Slayer could do so. They waited for the vampires to disperse before they made their way down to the street below and eventually to the Morgue.

They hadn't found a thing at the morgue, other than the signs of a struggle, but apart from that everything looked normal. Gunn had pointed out the fact that the struggle could have been because of someone other than Faith, that it could have been one of the employees' fighting against one of the Bringers that had overrun the town. In all likelihood, it was probably Faith though.

They were only about a kilometre from Buffy's house and Xander couldn't believe it. Other than Illyria and the vampires trying to attack her, they hadn't run into a single vampire or demon, which was miraculous on a normal night in Sunnydale. On top of that, they hadn't seen any Syophers, Bringers or Turokhan either. As usual, Xander had spoken, or rather thought, too soon as the bushes on either side of the road rustled and six bringers came out of hiding from behind them.

**A Nearby House – Sunnydale - California**

Darla had taken Drusilla to the second floor of one of the houses of Revello Drive as they had narrowly missed detection by The Slayer and her group. They had been shadowing the Slayer's movements and observing the ramshackle defences that they were putting up. Darla knew that her son, Connor, was in the group. The report which she had taken a brief glance at under the cover of darkness at Wolfram and Hart said so, and Wolfram and Hart was never wrong. Before she had taken Drusilla and left LA, she knew that Wolfram and Hart would pursue them and had 'acquired' an amulet for Drusilla and herself, allowing them to stay off of anyone's radar. She was sure that the mystics at Wolfram and Hart wouldn't take long to find some way around the amulet's protection, so she was becoming very impatient.

They were now peering out of the second storey window at the fight occurring in the street. They had been very lucky to miss the Bringers which they didn't even know were in hiding in the house next door to the one they were currently occupying.

They watched as Buffy and her crew easily opposed the Bringers' attack and beat them back just as if they were cannon fodder. Darla made a note to never cross paths with Buffy again as she watched and saw some of the moves that she was pulling, and the strength and speed with which she was doing so.

"She's become a nasty one, that Slayer has… wouldn't want to be surprised by her in the middle of a yummy meal," Drusilla commented.

"For once Dru, you're making sense," Darla replied. A minute later, she noticed a faint glow in the room and turned and looked at Drusilla. The amulet around her neck was glowing, and Darla looked down and noticed that hers was as well. "Damnit. Wolfram and Hart's found us."

**Above the Hellmouth – Sunnydale – California**

He had assembled all the ingredients needed for the spell, and was now above the Hellmouth, feeling very high after another union with The First. Ethan Rayne didn't like to think of himself as The First's magickal lapdog, but rather as a worshipper of Chaos, and on a slight detour to obtain just a little more power. His eyes glowed black, and the red cloak that he now hid himself behind these days swirled with dark purple, red and black energy. In front of him stood the image of Caelecae.

"Nice choice," Ethan commented to The First.

"Just getting in character," The First replied. The image of Caelecae walked up to Ethan and stood directly in front of him, looking straight into his eyes. Ethan was sure that he would be able to reach out and touch her if he wanted, and without thinking, his hand reached out and passed through the image in front of him. "We almost have everything needed for the conjoining ritual," The First said. Ethan looked down to the canister in the corner of the room that had been constructed around the Hellmouth.

"We have the power," Ethan said, referring to the _moping _which held a part of the essence of Cordelia which they had managed to steal in Los Angeles _(Reference-War Cries-Chapter 15:Showdown)_. "The Wolfram and Hart operative has assured us that the Old One will be here at that specific time, so all we need is a vessel to channel the powers used in the spell," Ethan said, "and I don't know of anyone with that kind of power," he added after a moment. Caelecae turned from looking at the _moping_ to his face and smiled.

"I do, and that's about to be taken care of," The First said before disappearing in a flash.

**Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California. **

Somehow, the power, water and phone lines had managed to stay operational during the current crisis, and Buffy wasn't anything short of thankful. She was surprised coming back from their investigation though to find that all of the lights in the house were turned on at two o'clock in the morning. She walked up to the front door, opened it and walked in. She was surprised to find everyone in the lounge room, all listening to a familiar figure. The figure turned and looked at Buffy.

"Hey B, have a good trip?" Faith said from the living room.

* * *

A lot of questions to be raised in this chapter 

What's Illyria up to?

What is Wolfram and Hart, and The First up to, trying to manipulate Caelecae into a certain place at a certain time (reference to the last chapter as well).

What's the ultimate role of Darla and Dru.

Anyway, next chapter.. it's gonna be a long one, maybe a 2 parter.

**Chapter 36 - The Ripple Effect**


	39. Chapter 36 The Ripple Effect Part 1

Here's the next chapter... it's a two parter.

Part Two of this will be much better than part 1, mainly because i've been working towards what's gonna happen in part 2 since about half way through this story, and it's gonna be pretty good.

The title of this chapter says everything, as well as the explanation of Chaos theory below.

Basically, what happens in this chapter (part 1 and part 2) will have drastic consequences on later chapters.

Part two should be up shortly, a day or so.

**

* * *

Chapter 36 **

**The Ripple Effect **

**(Chaos Theory) **

**Part 1**

* * *

**_Chaos Theory:_**

_The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does._ (Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos, pg. 141)

* * *

Cassia was lying on the lawn in the backyard of the Summers' house looking up at the night sky. She had snuck out of the meeting that was taking place upon Faith's return. This wasn't where she was meant to be, this wasn't where she belonged. She belonged in the forest with a small group of people, practicing magick and furthering her knowledge in the natural order of ways. Being on the front lines of a fight to keep back the forces of 'darkness'. She wasn't even sure if the people here were the right kind of people to be fighting this fight. They chose the most dangerous methods, placing as many people in danger as possible. The magicks that all of the witches used here were abusive, even if they claimed them not to be. Cassia sensed that the only one who even had the slightest clue about not abusing magick was the girl that they all called Tara. Cassia looked up at the stars and noticed that they seemed to glow a bit brighter here. She could see the faint blur of the barrier that Willow, Giles, Tara and Naomi had erected around the four properties. No one else could see the barrier, it was meant to be invisible, but Cassia knew that anyone who looked hard enough, or had enough awareness of the surrounding world would be able to see the signs. Perhaps that was the most valuable thing that Cassia had learned at the Coven; to trust and use your own instincts and only your own.

Cassia raised her hand and with her mind, asked for the barrier to bend a bit. Above her, where Cassia was looking up to the sky, the barrier bent and a small blob of energy left it and made its way to Cassia's hand. She examined the blob of energy, it wasn't natural and it didn't fit with the way that she had learned to use her gifts. She knew that she wasn't a 'powerful' witch, but she knew that with real magick, power had nothing to do with it. Anyone who had expanded their mind into the natural world was able to do what she was. The ability of every person around the world to use magick was equal. Cassia asked the blob of energy to return to the barrier with her mind, and she watched as it slowly floated up through the air. It reached the barrier, and a series of blue ripples of energy spread out along the barrier until they disappeared.

Cassia closed her eyes and let her mind relax. Slowly, her awareness of the world spread out beyond her physical body and encompassed most of the surrounding area of Sunnydale. Even though her eyes were closed, Cassia could see every single part of her surroundings with perfect ease, including many things she couldn't see normally. She let the perspective of her personality travel around the city, examining the mixture of energies that occurred. She could easily sense the presence of Bringers, Turokhan, Vampires, Syophers and various demons. Her awareness passed over one of The First's magicians, a worshipper of Chaos. He too was like her in more ways than he knew. He worshipped the order of chaos, which was what the universe revolved around. Newton had even got it right in his laws of energy; a system will change to maximum entropy unless acted upon by an external force.

Cassia relaxed her mind once more, and she began to see events which had already occurred in the near past, and she began to see events which would occur in the near future. She briefly saw an image of Willow and hung onto that, and the events which she saw began to reflect upon what has/would happen/ed to Willow. She then saw Tara and hung onto the image of her. She gradually stepped through all the people that she had come to know of in this place. Slowly, she regained her normal awareness and opened her eyes. She looked around to see that everything was as it had been, nothing had changed. She looked up to see that the stars were still blurred due to the barrier surrounding the place. She let out a sigh and decided to go back inside and pay attention to what was happening in the meeting. Cassia was going to need it if she was going to prevent what she had seen in her visions of the near future: her death.

Giles stood behind the chair in the Summers' house, listening to what Faith was telling the group about what she had gone through. It had most obviously been a trap for Faith, one which she had been hurt by, judging from the bruised cheek bone and gashed arms, which were rapidly healing already before their eyes. Giles judged that by morning, there would be no signs what so ever of Faith having ever been in a fight. The new healing abilities of both Buffy and Faith were remarkable to say the least.

The disturbing thought though was that if it had been a trap, as Faith had said it was, and then it meant that they couldn't fully trust Cordelia, or that The First was manipulating them again. It was the next words out of Faith's mouth that really got Giles's attention.

"There was also this huge ass demon. He said he worked for Wolfram and Hart right before I killed him," Faith said to the group. This caused Wesley and Gunn to sit down, being the only remaining members of Angel's crew, familiar with Wolfram and Hart, in the group. Cordelia was 'off' doing other things, apparently organising other people as well as themselves.

"Wolfram and Hart," Wesley said. After a moment, he continued. "Of course. This is _the _apocalypse, and they have a hand in it… and Angel plays a pivotal role," Wesley said, thinking out loud.

"It would make sense, have the two biggest guns going for the apocalypse, The First and Wolfram and Hart," Gunn added. There was a brief pause as everyone considered the fact.

"Maybe what we need to think about is what are we going to do now?" Oz said from his position sitting on the floor.

"It's all good to be sitting here discussing things, but we need to do something," Nicola added, turning from looking at Oz to the rest of the group. "From what we know, The First is usually always one step ahead, and we've always been playing catch-up. Sure, when we were doing it, the scale wasn't the same as it is now, but it's still the same game plan." Buffy opened her mouth, but then closed it again. Giles saw her look around to everyone, not knowing what to say.

"Where do we start?" Buffy asked. "There's so much going on around this town. Where do we start?"

"I'll start by fixing this house," Xander added with a sarcastic voice, but that was his intention. The house had come under a lot of damage after the last couple of weeks, and it needed to be fixed before rooms started collapsing.

"The Old Ones," Wesley said almost immediately. "They're very powerful, and we must learn more about them, and if they can be persuaded, or manipulated to come over to our side of the fight," Wesley said.

"So, what? We're just meant to trick these Old Ones into fighting for us, when they think we're so little to them?" Connor questioned.

"The world has changed quite a great deal since their departure. They are in new bodies, and I'd imagine they'd be very confused," Wesley answered.

"Yeah, confused enough to be killing vampires for us," Xander said. "That puts them in the yay column in my book."

"I think Illyria is trying to obtain her own army, for her own purposes, if what you, Buffy and the others say is true," Giles added. It was the logical explanation, that the once ruler of a global army of demons, when returned to a world where it has nothing, will try to acquire another army.

"We've got to work out why they were brought here. We know that they were told that the human race is ending, and that's why they were brought back," Wesley said _(Reference to War Cries – Chapter 29 – Steps Towards Evolution)_.

"The Hellmouth," Faith said, silencing everyone. Giles saw that everyone was looking at her. Faith nodded her head, smiled and continued. "The Hellmouth's a pretty good place to start. It's gotta be closed."

**Elsewhere in Sunnydale**

A black limousine pulled up alongside the "Welcome to Sunnydale" Sign, having come from Los Angeles. The guise of Lilah Morgan stepped out of the limousine and held the door open. A young man, wearing almost all completely black stepped out after her. After him was a demon with a blue head and horns, which had a small resemblance to D'Hoffryn stepped out. After that, a young woman, who was also almost dressed completely in black stepped out of the limousine. The three stood in front of Lilah.

"You know what you have to do. Find Darla and Drusilla, and preferably bring them back alive," Lilah said. The trio of figures moved into the night, away from the Limousine. Lilah Morgan hopped back into the Limo and headed into the town of Sunnydale.

**Los Angeles – California**

**O Ops Operation First Hope**

They had made it across the CBD of Los Angeles to the apartment building they were now standing in front of. A report had come that a group of civilians were held up in the building, and there was an immediate order for O Ops to investigate. They had ploughed through a number of groups of vampires and Bringers roaming the streets. O Ops had now adapted their SUV's to have a large bull bar on the front of the vehicle, making it easier to pass through the groups with a minimum of damage to the vehicle and a minimal loss of speed.

Riley entered the building first. There was obvious signs of life in the foyer as it had been cleaned up from an initial struggle. There were also some scorch marks on the wall which Riley couldn't tell what they were from. The entire bottom floor was comprised of functional rooms and the residential rooms started on the second floor. Riley found the stairwell and went up to the second floor. He heard a noise from behind the door directly in front of him and he ordered two of his men to flank either side of the door. He ordered the rest of his team to begin to search other rooms while he took a step back and kicked the door in and went into the room. The room was lit by candle light and two figures sat on the floor, and they were obviously human.

"Come on, we're here to take you to a safe place," Riley said to the two people while offering his hand to help them stand up. One of the people, a young woman in her early twenties looked at him and shook her head.

"We're not going anywhere, we've got a job to do," she replied.

"Come on," Riley replied.

"We were told we were safe here," the young woman said to Riley.

"By who?" Riley almost demanded.

"By Amy, she's two floors up in room 80," The young man who was accompanying the woman said, obviously nervous. At that comment, Riley turned around and headed straight for the stairwell. He raced up the stairs two at a time and came out at the third floor. He quickly looked at the numbers on the door in front of him and was surprised to find that it was room 80. He went to open the door, but the person on the other side beat him to it. The door opened to reveal a young girl standing before him, the room behind her lit easily by many candles. Riley was shocked at the appearance of the young girl.

"You're not welcome here," She almost hissed. She had black hair, black eyes and was wearing completely black. Her skin was unnaturally pale, and dark veins could be seen on her arms and face.

"We're here to help you, you're in danger here," Riley replied, his rifle still raised.

"We're not in any danger," the girl replied, her head bowed towards the ground with her eyes looking up at Riley.

"Do you even know what's happening outside…" Riley started.

"We are not in any danger," the girl replied, interrupting Riley. Riley went to try and convince her to come with him again, but the girl raised her palm up towards him. Before Riley knew what was happening, he was floating above the ground in front of the door to the girl's room. "I can snap you like a twig if I wish, do not give me any reason to. We are not in danger from those outside, and if we were, we can protect ourselves," The girl said to him before she sent him flying backwards through the air, through the door to the stairwell and crashing down a flight of stairs with only the movement of her wrist.

**Two Hours Later, A Block Down the Street – Los Angeles – California**

Riley's team all sat in their SUV's and waited. Soon they heard the loud thunder of a F16 Hornet flying overhead, identifying it's target. Riley had reported back to the base camp of the events that had occurred in the apartment building. Two of his team members had found rooms full of inscribings talking about the coming revolution of vampires and bringers. Two more of his team members now suffered broken limbs from other people that they had found in the building unwilling to cooperate, and who had resisted much more violently than the girl that Riley had encountered, Amy. They had found one girl willingly being fed on by a vampire, something which shook Riley too close to home, and the base command of O Ops had determined the residents of the building a significant threat, and had ordered an air strike. Riley had tried to oppose the command, but what he thought didn't matter. He knew that they were people in that building, no matter how twisted they may be, but they were still people.

He watched as the F16 lined itself up for the building, and two darts seemed to fly out of it and scream towards the building. Two explosions ripped through the air, the only problem was that they weren't from the building. They originated from a magickal barrier that surrounded the building and now pulsated with energy, absorbing the explosions.

"Looks like we underestimated them," Professor Maggie Walsh said while leaning in the window of the SUV.

* * *

Next Chapter

**The Ripple Effect (Chaos Theory) Part 2 **which is...

3.5 Daysbefore something happens which will blow your mind.


	40. Chapter 36 The Ripple Effect Part 2

Well, so much for this being a 2 part chapter. It's a 3 Part chapter. I'm uploading both part 2 and 3 at the same time, so, yeah.

Queen Boadicea: man, i aint gonna end the story with 'closing the hellmouth'. That's been overdone waaaaaaaayyyy too much. I promise, an **original ending**

All i can say about this one is

**Warning: **It's long

**Warning:** The rating for this chapter has been upgraded to **MA15 **or** R18** (Australian ratings) for the reason below....

**Longest, and i think, pretty gruesome fight scene** in this section of the chapter. You'll see why the fight scene is needed in part 3 of The Ripple Effect, Chaos Theory.

Everything that happens in these chapters (Ripple effect), have an effect on some other event (that's why it's called the ripple effect), so, this chapter will be referred to a lot in the future.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 37 **

**The Ripple Effect **

**(Chaos Theory) **

**Part 2 **

**One Day Later – 5.00 P.M**

Steve felt privileged to be here, on top of the Hellmouth when everything was going down. He had been hearing the rumours for months before hand, that something was coming, and that it would change the face of the earth forever. Every demon community had been abuzz with the news for at least a year now, ever since the most powerful demons still remaining on the face of the planet had sensed something. Right now, he was in the thick of it. He was apart of a revolution, one which would wipe most of humanity from the earth and change the world back to something similar to the demon age. He had learned of The First Evil back in his home of Mexico through a demon which could turn itself incorporeal at will. Apparently, it was an agent of The First, and it had been recruiting. If it deemed any demon or vampire fit enough to serve The First, the demon gave instructions. His had been to come to Sunnydale and join in the legions of vampires already serving The First.

Steve turned around only to see his own face looking back at him from across the room. A perfect image of himself was standing on the other side of the room.

"You know what I am?" the image of himself said.

"Yes I do. The First Evil," Steve replied to himself. He watched as the image of himself smiled and began to walk slowly across the room towards him.

"Good," it replied in an up-tone voice while morphing into the image of a blonde haired girl. "Do you know who this is?"

"The Slayer, Buffy," Steve replied at the image of the Slayer.

"Good. When the sun sets, they'll be patrolling the town, in force… I want you to find them, and get caught," The image of Buffy Summers said.

**Half a day later - Summers' Residence – Sunnydale – California**

Buffy, Tara, Willow, Oz, Daniel, Connor and the Three Potential Slayers had just stepped into the last rays of sunlight. They emerged from the dark confines of the Sunnydale High School after investigating the Hellmouth and making sure that nobody or nothing was messing around with it. They had agreed to send groups out to check on the Hellmouth while the others who remained at the 'base camp' researched ways to close it, hopefully permanently.

"Now it gets interesting," Connor heard Buffy say as she looked towards the setting sun over the horizon. With a little discussion, they had agreed on positions to set themselves up on to observe every point of access into the school, and therefore the Hellmouth. That way, they could identify anything going in, and more importantly, anything that came out. They had all made sure that they were armed to the teeth before setting out from the base camp.

Two hours went by before Connor sensed anything. He was across the road from the entrance to the High School, and he saw a lone vampire walking down the middle of the road and carefully making it's way up to the front entrance to the ruined High School. He obviously was a newly sired vampire, as he didn't try to use his instincts and stay in the shadow, away from the streetlights. He looked over to the werewolf Oz who was the closest person to him, and with his enhanced vision, he saw that Oz was looking back at him. He saw Oz make a gesture with his hands signalling to come to him. Silently Connor made his way from bush to bush, tree to tree in the darkness of night, the vampire never knowing he was there. He came up behind Oz and squatted down beside him.

"What do you think?" Oz said to him. Connor looked through the bushes towards the vampire, which was just standing in front of the High School, looking around.

"He's waiting for someone," Connor replied.

"Just what I thought," Oz replied. Connor sensed movement from the werewolf and looked to see that he was text messaging someone, obviously Buffy and/or the rest of the patrol group to alert them to the vampire at the front of the school. Buffy and Willow had insisted that they all carried mobile phones to make it easier to communicate, and call for help from the 'base camp' if it was needed. "Everyone's commin around. We're waiting ten minutes, and if no one shows up, we all take the vampire alive," Oz whispered to Connor after receiving a reply on his mobile phone. Connor liked the idea of taking it alive, that way they could interrogate it. He originally didn't have a high opinion of the Vampire Slayers, and he thought that they were too stubborn and didn't really use much of their intelligence when hunting vampires. His time in Sunnydale with Buffy and Faith had changed those opinions greatly, but he still thought that they liked to stab things first and ask questions later.

Connor and Oz were on the vampire's right side as he faced the road from the front of the Sunnydale High school. He noticed movement to the vampire's left, opposite them and his enhanced night vision could tell that it was the two Witches, Willow and Tara, and the other werewolf, Daniel. He watched as they moved around, perpendicular to the vampire and facing the front of the High School from across the road. He noticed more movement and saw that it was the three Potential Slayers, and that they had situated themselves opposite Oz and himself. He peaked his head above the bushes and saw that Buffy had placed herself next to Connor and Oz a fair distance away, her back on the side wall of the High School. If, when they all charged, Buffy ran to block the entrance to the High School, they would prevent the vampire from making a run for it into the High School.

He heard what would have been a very quiet humming sound to the ordinary person, but was actually quite loud to him and looked to Oz. He was listening into his phone and in a moment he closed it and placed it back into his pocket.

"That was Buffy. When she starts to move along the front of the building and gives a signal, we all charge the vamp as fast as we can and take it alive," Oz said to Connor. Connor saw Oz get out a small sword and he could tell that he was uncomfortable with the weapon.

"You are uncomfortable with the weapon?" Connor inquired.

"Usually I just wolf-out when things get tough," Oz replied. "Not used to the weapons."

"You can control the ability to become a werewolf," Connor said, inquiring but knowing the answer. There was a moment of silence as the pair glanced through the bushes towards the vampire.

"Went to Tibet. Came back here. Went to Tibet again," Oz said. Connor just nodded, not knowing what was special about the place called Tibet. He guessed it was a place of great mystical energy and teachings. "What about you, what's your story?" Oz questioned.

"Son of two vampires. Raised in a Hell Dimension. Came back here. Put Angel on the bottom of the ocean. Came here," Connor replied. He saw that Oz just nodded his head slightly and smiled. He glanced towards Buffy and saw that she was moving along the front of the High School. "She's moving," Connor said, but noticed that Oz already knew.

Once Buffy waved her hand towards the vampire, Connor leapt into action and was surprised to find that Oz wasn't too far behind him. He leapt over the bushes they were hiding behind and ran towards the vampire, two large knives in hand. He saw that others had emerged from their hiding places and that they were all converging towards the vampire. The vampire seemed startled and confused and didn't know which way to turn, eventually figuring out that people were coming from all sides, giving him no way to escape. Connor reached the vampire first and ducked under a punch that was sent his way. He lashed out with the two swords to the vampire's legs, surprised that the vampire leapt out of the way of the blades. He was readying to swing his short sword again when a fist hit the side of the vampire's head, sending it stumbling sideways. Suddenly out of no where, a crossbow bolt appeared in the rear of the vampire's leg, sending it to the ground. Connor looked up to see the other werewolf, Daniel, walking towards the vampire with a crossbow raised to it.

"That could have hit me," Connor said to him.

"It wasn't going to. Expert marksman with a crossbow since I was sixteen," Daniel replied. Connor pointed the sword to the vampire's neck, the tip resting an inch away from the exposed skin. The vampire was trying to get up again, but another crossbow bolt from Daniel in the other leg stopped it's attempts. The Potential Slayers as well as the Witches approached and they all stood around the vampire.

"Who were you waiting for," Buffy demanded, stepping towards the vampire with a stake in her hand. She bent down and held it towards the vampire's chest. The vampire was obviously scared, probably from the fact at how quickly they had all emerged from behind cover and taken it down. That didn't stop the vampire from giving them all the silent treatment however, it was scared but it wasn't talking. Connor saw the point of the stake begin to dig harder and harder into the vampire's chest. He saw Daniel put the crossbow to the back of the vampire's head as it knelt down on the ground.

"That crossbow won't kill me," the vampire said, obviously speaking to Daniel.

"But I'm betting a bolt through your brain will hurt like hell," Daniel replied.

"Who?" Buffy queried again, pushing harder on the stake. A large amount of blood could be seen staining the vampire's shirt as Buffy pushed the stake harder.

"Okay, okay. I'll talk," The vampire said. Buffy withdrew the stake and Daniel moved the crossbow away.

Steve the vampire didn't have the same faith in The First's words as he did before he set out into the town earlier that night. The First had promised that the Slayer and her group would not kill him, but now he wasn't so sure. He was kneeling down on the sidewalk in front of the ruins of the Sunnydale High School with the Slayer staring him straight in the eyes. Behind her, he could see the image of a young girl sitting on the steps leading up to the entrance to the High School, looking at him. He knew that it was The First, watching over everything. Pain was throbbing through his body from the crossbow bolts in each of his legs and the hole that had been etched right above his heart by the pure force of the stake being pushed into his chest. S

"I was told to come here, to meet someone, I don't know who, who was going to tell me what I needed to get ready for Friday," Steve heard himself saying, just as The First had instructed him to.

"What's happening," a short young man with red-brown hair forcefully asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that something big is going to happen here at the Hellmouth on Friday, that's it. I was meant to find out more tonight, before you all showed up," Steve said. "You're not going to kill me are you?" he asked the group, but especially the Slayer.

"You're already dead. Kill him," the Slayer said to the young man holding a sword to his neck.

Connor raised the sword to swing at the vampire's neck, when the vampire did something none of them had expected. He started shouting to something that he thought was there.

"You said they wouldn't kill me if I cooperated," he shouted towards the steps. "You said they wouldn't." Connor looked towards the steps but saw nothing there. He saw Buffy spin around and look at the vampire. Connor brought the sword down severing the vampire's head from the rest of it's body and turning it to dust. He was sent sprawling forward, through the disintegrating vampire, to the ground from a force behind him.

Connor quickly got himself to his feet and immediately looked behind him. He could see a red hooded figure standing on the sidewalk, looking at all of them. He saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. When he turned, he saw black hooded figures emerging from the shadows as if they were made from the shadows themselves and he knew that they were Bringers. A manhole cover in the middle of the road popped out and five Turokhan Vampires emerged from it. Around them, four more black hooded figures shimmered into existence, obviously being Syophers. Connor turned down the street and saw a group of vampires moving towards them as well, and he knew that they were hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded. Immediately, everyone, including Connor closeted in one group, all facing outwards, all ready to attack.

"Giles, we're-going-to-need-some-help-out-the-front-of-the-High-School," Connor heard Willow saying into her mobile phone.

The Bringers, Turokhan and Vampires quickly formed a loose circle around them, and Connor was itching to get into the action and get the fight over and done with already, although he was fairly confident that he wasn't going to like the results of the encounter. He knew that both He and Buffy, and possibly the Witches could easily evade the group surrounding them and make a run for it, but the others couldn't, so therefore he couldn't abandon them. Beside him he heard a loud growling and snarling sound and looked to see that Daniel had disregarded his crossbow and was in the process of transforming into his Canine side, and it sent a chill up Connor's spine. Maybe there was hope of getting out of this alive after all. The two Witches, Willow and Tara were in the middle of the cluster that they had formed and he could hear that they were quietly chanting something.

"Wait until we're done," Connor heard Willow say to Buffy.

"They're not going to wait until you're done," Buffy replied referring to both Oz and Daniel and the Bringers, Turokhan and Vampires surrounding them.

A number of events all happened at once. Daniel and Oz completed their transformation into their werewolf sides and charged forward with the intent on ripping everything that resembled a Bringer, Vampire or Turokhan, to pieces. The red cloaked figure gave the order for the Bringers, Vampires and Turokhan to kill the Slayer and her allies before disappearing in a light show of red, black and blue. Willow and Tara completed their spell, sending the two front rows of enemies surrounding their group sprawling backwards, temporarily incapacitating those behind them.

"Connor, protect Willow and Tara," Buffy said before turning around and charging towards the enemies who were on the ground from Willow and Tara's spell, intent on killing as many as she could as long as they were on the ground. The three Potential Slayers followed her, slashing and hacking at anything they could. It was only a matter of moments before their enemies had recovered and were fighting back against Buffy and the Potential Slayers, who were doing remarkably well considering that they had no special abilities so to speak and that they only had had a limited amount of training with either Faith or Buffy. Connor remained behind and it wasn't long before a couple of bringers came their way. He risked a quick glance behind him to see that the witches were working on another spell. He took two steps up to the oncoming Bringers and dodged the first blade that came slicing through the air towards his neck. He ducked below the next one and brought his two swords up as he rose again. He dodged the next knife that was coming towards him, leaving an opening in the Bringer's defences and he stabbed his sword into the Bringer. He didn't even have enough time to register that he had delivered a fatal blow to the Bringer before he had turned around and stabbed the other one in it's chest. He sensed quick movement behind him and he swung around again, seeing that the Bringer was bringing it's knife down towards him from above. He used the flat side of his sword in his left hand to deflect the Bringer's arm and drive it down. With his other hand, he brought his sword up and decapitated the Bringer. A powerful blow was delivered to his back and he was sent forward, tripping over the falling body of the Bringer that he had just killed. At once, he rolled around onto his back to see that a Turokhan vampire was crouching down in a predatory stance and approaching him snarling. He just had enough time to see the face of another Turokhan that appeared in his vision above him before he rolled out of the way of it's foot coming down to slam his head into oblivion. He quickly got himself upright and he realised that he was caught between the two Turokhan.

Connor's right shoulder was facing one Turokhan, his sword and most of his body facing the vampire. His left hand was held back, and the sword held lower, ready to swing it around behind him if that Turokhan attacked first. He just had enough time to step backwards and bring his sword up, cutting deeply into the mid section of a vampire that attempted to charge him from the side.

This step backwards had propelled the Turokhan behind Connor to leap into action and it charged towards him. Connor quickly turned and arced both of his swords diagonally through the air towards the Turokhan. The first sword missed the Turokhan altogether, but the second had enough force and speed to cause a deep gash in the Turokhan's shoulder, sending it sprawling backwards in pain. Before Connor knew what was happening, two arms wrapped themselves around his body from behind. Connor used all his strength to push backwards, this only caused the Turokhan which had a death grip on him to trip over, bringing Connor down with it. He was trapped on top of the Turokhan when he felt a sharp slicing pain in his neck, and he realised that the Turokhan had bitten in. He struggled more, but he couldn't move from the Turokhan's grasp. He dropped both of his swords and grabbed onto the Turokhan's arms that were wrapped around him and attempted to pull them away. He saw another Turokhan coming towards them and when it was close enough, he kicked out with his foot, sending it sprawling backwards onto the ground. He gripped the Turokhan's arms with all his strength and with a yell, pried them away from his body enough to get free of the vampire. Quickly, he rolled off the vampire, picking up one of his swords as he did so. He got onto all fours above the Turokhan and put the sword to it's neck and pushed as hard as he could. At first, the sword didn't seem to have any effect, but eventually with a loud thunk, it went through the Turokhan's neck, turning it to dust.

Connor glanced towards the two witches to see that a hemisphere of energy was flowing around the pair, protecting them from the Vampires, Bringers and Turokhan who attempted to attack them. That wasn't his concern though, his concern was the three large black hooded figures floating across the ground towards the pair.

"Syophers," he muttered under his breath. He grabbed his other sword from the ground and got up. He had only taken a step towards them when he was confronted with three more bringers. He dispatched them easily enough, only to see that Tara's hands were glowing white and her palms were pointed towards one of the Syophers. In the blink of an eye, the Syopher was sent flying backwards through the air at break-neck speeds across the street, knocking down anything in it's way. It impacted against the hand-rail on the steps of the ruined Sunnydale High School and broke the hand rail off of it's fastenings into the concrete steps.

Connor's distraction cost him dearly though. He felt a sharp pain in the side of his waist, where he looked down to see a Bringer's knife lodged. He swung his sword around in his right hand and stabbed behind him, hearing the sound of metal slicing through flesh. The Bringer fell to the ground, leaving it's knife embedded in Connor's side. Connor looked up to see a Turokhan coming towards him. He put both of his swords into his left hand, and with one swift movement and a sound which he didn't recognise as his, he pulled the Bringer's knife out of his waist and hurled it towards the Turokhan. The knife went tumbling through the air and implanted itself right in the Turokhan's forehead. The vampire's eyes went wide and it's body went still before it fell to the ground, not moving.

Connor grasped both of his swords again just in time to stick them into a vampire which was charging at him. He withdrew both of his swords and swung them in opposite directions towards the vampire's neck, cutting his head off like a giant pair of scissors. Another Turokhan stepped cautiously towards him, and Connor could see that it was badly injured. He took a step forward to strike out at the Turokhan when he heard a loud growl and saw a large grey blur spear-tackle the Turokhan to the ground. He saw the werewolf tearing into the Turokhan beneath it before the Turokhan kicked it off. Connor used the opportunity to behead the Turokhan while it was on the ground. He dodged a sword which was swung at him by a vampire, but he didn't have time to counter-attack the vampire as he turned and dodged another blade from another vampire. Using his enhanced strength, he leapt over the vampire in front of him and drove his sword straight through the vampire's chest, effectively wounding it and taking it out of combat for a while. He beheaded the next vampire, and he sensed a quick movement towards him from his right. He turned and raised his arm to swing his sword down on the bringer that was approaching him, but he winced and slowed as he did so due to the injury on his waist. That extra millisecond that it took to bring the blade down was enough for the Bringer. It's knife got through Connor's defences and slid into his mid-gut. The Bringer arced the knife upwards and drew it out. The Bringer wasn't in time to dodge the sword that was coming towards it from Connor and it was cut across it's chest as Connor sunk to his knees.

He looked down to see that he had already lost a large amount of blood due to the first wound he had acquired from the Bringers, and now it was gushing out of him like a running river. His hands clutched the stab wound on his stomach, trying to keep as much blood in as possible. He saw a vampire coming towards him and he attempted to pick up his sword from his kneeling position, but he was moving much too slow. He saw a foot coming towards his face, and he was knocked back onto the ground, his nose and various other bones in his face broken. He lay on the ground expecting the final blow to come from the vampire, but he saw a long-haired brunette figure attack the vampire, and he realised that it was one of the Potential Slayers. He tried to get up, but he didn't possess the strength to do so. Connor lay there and watched as the Potential Slayer attempted to battle the various Vampires and Bringers who attempted to attack both of them. He made a mental note to thank her if he survived this, as he was truly moved. He had never thought much of the Potential Slayers, he could tell that they were usually scared from the fear he could smell coming off of them, but this demonstrated that at least one of them had strength, at least one of them wasn't afraid to face up to the forces which they were fighting against. He watched as the training that she had been put through over the years by her Watcher carried her through the battle. He watched as she protected him against the bringers and vampires which longed to taste his blood. Connor watched as a vampire sneaked up behind her and drove a sword through her chest. He watched as she looked down at him, blood coming out of her mouth. He watched as her chest stopped rising and falling, and her face and extremities went pale. He watched as her body fell to the ground and landed beside him.

"Thankyou," Connor weakly said as he turned his head towards hers. He watched as the words sunk into her mind and then everything that was keeping her alive seemed to stop functioning.

"Shannon," he heard a female voice scream. He saw another female figure above them as he eventually got weaker and he found it hard to keep breathing. He watched as another one of the Potential Slayers came into his vision, moving towards the body of her now dead friend. He heard the sound of a number of vampires turning to dust, and he looked to his side and in a moment he saw Buffy Summers kneeling down above the body of the Potential Slayer beside him. A magickal blast of energy streaked above him from the direction he had last saw Willow and Tara in.

"She's dead," Connor weakly said to Buffy.

"Oh my God, Connor," Buffy said as she moved over to him. Her face was bloodied and he could see a number of lumps on the Slayer's body where they shouldn't be. Connor was now struggling to keep his eyes open, and the last thing he saw before darkness took him was that of Buffy Summers rising to her feet, spinning around and swiftly beheading a Turokhan Vampire which had been approaching her from behind.

* * *

And now on to part 3. 


	41. Chapter 38 The Ripple Effect Part 3

The last section in this chapter is something i've been working towards for ages!!!!!!!!!! I rekon it's pretty good, and this is one of the better chapters.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 38 **

**The Ripple Effect **

**(Chaos Theory) **

**Part 3 **

They had come as fast as possible in Oz's van, a SUV that they had managed to 'commandeer' once everyone had left town, and Gunn's van. Everyone had come except Faith. It had been decided that she needed to stay back and defend the 'base camp'. Giles had thought that it was a good idea. They needed someone who would be enough of a challenge to any attacking force long enough for them to all return if the 'base camp' was attacked, and Faith was that force.

If they had known what they were going into, they would have brought Faith none the less. No one had expected to see what was before them. They pulled up as close as they could to the battle, while ensuring that those within the vans would have enough time to escape if needed. They had originally come to back up the group that had gone on patrol, but that was not going to be the case now. Giles could see that their best option was to get everyone out of the battle and then run like hell, or more accurately, drive.

"Buffy, get everyone in the vans," Giles shouted, and was relieved to see that Buffy had heard him above the combat. They were in luck. While Buffy and her group were gone, Cordelia had come back to them, and not long after, they had received the call from Willow. Giles had gotten out of the van and had opened up the side door, and was retrieving a crossbow. He was glad to see that Wesley and Gunn who had arrived just prior to him were already firing into the crowd. He saw Brett and, Naomi and Nicola pull up next to him and jump out, each pulling out a crossbow except Naomi who had a compound bow, preferring that as she had grown up competing in archery. A multitude of crossbow bolts and arrows entered the crowd of vampires and bringers, some hitting their mark, some just injuring them. He saw one of the potential Slayers emerging from the mass of vampires and bringers, and saw that she was defending someone. Giles's hopes faded when he saw that the Potential Slayer, Crystal, was defending Buffy, who was dragging two bodies behind her.

"Cover them," he heard Brett yell from the van beside him. He looked over to Willow and Tara who were now emerging, and he could see that Willow was using her magick to protect Tara, who was also dragging a body behind her. He aimed his crossbow and shot an arrow towards a bringer that was advancing on Willow and Tara. He looked beside him to Cassia, who was standing still with her eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" Giles questioned. Cassia didn't even move a muscle. He looked to Cordelia, who was standing with her arms outstretched towards the vampires and bringers. Soon, small balls of blue energy emanated from her hands and stuck together in groups of four or five and went spiralling towards the enemy. He fired another crossbow bolt and saw one of the clusters of balls of energy enter into the stomach of a vampire. A moment later, the vampire burst into a cloud of dust, and the balls of energy continued on towards another vampire as other clusters of energy destroyed a number of vampires. Giles could see two werewolves attacking everything around them, and he saw that they realised that it was time to go and they began to rampage their way though the crowd towards them.

"In here," Giles said to Buffy, moving to the side so he could get a clear shot at a Turokhan which was coming towards Buffy. He fired the crossbow and hit the Turokhan in the shoulder, barely slowing it down. It was the other four crossbow bolts and an arrow which hit the Turokhan two seconds later forced it to the ground. Giles noticed that overhead, the sky was quickly becoming overcast, much too fast to be natural. He moved out of the way for Buffy as she put the bodies into the van, Giles not having time to work out who they were, knowing that he'd work that out later. He reloaded his crossbow and could see that Oz was transforming into himself again as he came out of the crowd towards the vans. Giles heard a very loud crack of thunder overhead as the clouds overhead filled the entire sky, eliminating all light that had come from the almost full moon.

"Daniel!" he heard a scream from beside him. Giles turned to see that Naomi was distressed and that she was looking into the crowd of vampires and bringers. He turned to look to see the still transforming werewolf known as Daniel get punched in the stomach by a Turokhan causing him to bend forward. The Turokhan then brought both of it's fists down on Daniel's back, sending him to the ground. Giles saw Buffy turn around and begin to move back towards the crowd of Vampires and Bringers when Cassia's voice seemed to resonate from everywhere.

"Stay back," she said. Another loud clap of thunder could be heard from overhead, and then in the space of four seconds, seven or eight lightning strikes struck the ground in the area around Daniel, incinerating any vampires in their path. It wasn't in time to stop a single lone vampire from driving his sword into Daniel's back before he burst into a cloud of dust.

"No!" Nicola screamed as Brett held her back.

"Go," Cassia said to Buffy. Giles shot his crossbow bolt at another bringer which still remained in the crowd as Buffy ran forward and retrieved the body of Daniel. She picked him up and started running back to Gunn's van, giving Giles the cue to start to leave.

"Everyone in the vans," Giles said as he put his crossbow in the back of the van and hopped in the driver's seat.

**Two Days Later – Base Camp – Sunnydale – California**

The last two days had heavily damaged the morale at the base camp. They had to bury three of their own – two Potential Slayers and one Werewolf, while another one of theirs was still severely injured and despite his rapid healing abilities, still couldn't stand up for more than twenty minutes. It had been suggested to get him a blood transfusion, but what kind of blood do you get for a person which is the son of two vampires with extraordinary abilities. You don't get him any blood, that's the answer Willow thought. They had had a memorial service for Shannon, Amanda and Daniel. Shannon and Amanda had died protecting Connor from further injury as he had lied unconscious from his injuries in the middle of the battle.

Willow had spent the majority of the past two days preparing for the spell which she was about to commence. She had originally gotten the idea from the speech that Buffy had given a short while after they had come back, and what she had said was strongly known to everyone now. They didn't have enough numbers, they didn't have enough power, they didn't have a chance of winning. Now, hopefully some of that would change. They now knew that something was going to be going down at the Hellmouth on Friday, two and a half days away, and they needed all the help that they could get if they were to prevent it, whatever it was that was meant to be happening.

For the spell to even have a chance at working, Willow had to have spent the last two days preparing both her mind and her body for the spell, there was no other way it could have been done. There were a large number of parameters that needed to be put in place in the spell, it was almost as if she were designing the spell. Most of her time had been spent in a silent contemplation, gathering her thoughts and thinking of how she was going to do the spell. Now, here she was, about to do one of the biggest spells which she had ever done, even before she had delved down the road of magick abuse. Tara, Naomi and Cassia had offered to help, but Willow knew that this was something that she needed to do herself.

That was the difference now, once upon a time, she would have gone ahead and done the spell almost instantly. Now, she was spending her time preparing.

"Well, here it goes," she said to Tara.

"You'll do great," Tara replied.

"Well if everyone blows up, we'll know I didn't do that good," Willow replied, half joking and half serious. She felt Tara give her hand a squeeze before she turned away and went into their room. She closed the door behind her, and opened up the curtains allowing the evening breeze come into the room and relax her.

Willow opened her only spell ingredient: salt, and poured it in a circle around herself, creating _the circle_ which she had disregarded in her magickal practices long ago. The circle was meant to protect herself and keep her energies inside of the circle until the spell was complete and the energies could be released.

She sat down, cross legged in the circle and took in a deep breath, calming her inner nerves. Slowly, her mind delved into a peaceful state, and opened itself to the world. She could now sense the things around her with her mind, feel their essence emanating out towards her and the rest of the world. Willow stayed in this state for at least another twenty minutes before she even put her mind towards the spell.

Slowly, she went over the parameters that the spell required to work properly. The past two days had formed a small cluster of thoughts in her brain. It was almost as if she had already formed the spell, and just had to push it out into the world. She felt the energies around her, and slowly, she introduced her own energies into the circle and introduced the parameters into it. This spell was so much different than any other she had performed. It had nothing to do with power, and everything to do with control. The thought had occurred to her before that what she was doing was almost exactly the same as a computer virus, but this one operated at a human level, and this one was for the benefit of mankind, if it worked.

Slowly, a small ball of invisible energy formed itself in front of Willow, the parameters being introduced one at a time. This small ball of energy would form the most intelligent spell that Willow had ever heard of being performed, except maybe for the one which governed the rules of The Slayer. The invisible ball of energy in front of Willow slowly gained an artificial intelligence.

Half an hour later, it was done. Willow opened her eyes and looked around. She was sitting in a hemisphere of white energy, the circle, which only she could see, and in front of her, a small ball of transparent energy, almost like a sphere of water, floated in front of her, which only she could see.

"There," she just barely whispered. She took a moment to marvel at her creation, and then she closed her eyes again.

Ten minutes later, the small sphere of energy had replicated itself six times. Seven balls of energy floated around Willow. She opened her eyes again, only to see the white hemisphere of energy around her, the circle, collapse. The spell was now truly complete. With one word, it would be put in motion.

"Go," Willow said to the balls of energy. Slowly at first, they started to move outwards. They moved through the walls of the room, spreading outwards, looking for their targets. Eventually, they became faster and faster as the spheres of energy learned to judge their targets more accurately.

Each ball of energy was 'programmed' to seek out a certain type of individual. Once it had found that individual, it would deliver a **message** and then replicate itself. Then, both spheres of energy would move on to find another target, and then replicate themselves again once they had reached the target. The result was an exponential growth in the number of invisible magickal spheres looking for their targets.

Their targets were any able bodied fighter, any witch or magick user who was willing and able to use their abilities.

One message was broadcast worldwide to all of these people by Willow Rosenburg.

"_Come."_

Little did Willow, or anyone else at base camp know, that the majority of their help was already on it's way, and only two days away.

* * *

**2.5 days remaining until 'it happens'**.

I have never read of 'it' being done before, adn i'm pretty sure that no one has had the idea to do 'it' before, whatever 'it' is, which you'll find out soon enough.

I have been working towards 'it' since the story Post Grave (the prequel to this), and i got the idea for 'it' from a scene in Buffy, Season 7- Touched.

**Next Chapter - Chapter 39 - Reinforcing Faith.** or something like that.

**Chapter after that - unkown**

**Chapter after that - 'It' happens - Title - Coagulation** or something like that.


	42. Chapter 39 Have Faith

Sorry bout the wait, some things came up. Here's next chapter, some things are revealed.

**

* * *

****Chapter 39 **

**Have Faith**

**Early Hours of Friday Morning – Sunnydale – California**

She knew that they had to find shelter from the coming sunlight, and fast. She could sense the coming light on the Eastern Horizon. She was at least thankful for one thing, Drusilla was in a cooperative mood. They had been pursued for the last couple of days by Operatives of Wolfram and Hart. After their first encounter, she had doubled back and spied on them. There were two highly trained human assassins who she learned used to be in the Watchers Council, before it was destroyed by The First's operatives. The demon which was working with them was there to help them, and Darla knew that he was also there to kill them if they tried to escape. From what she knew from her brief time she was at Wolfram and Hart, The First's operatives had attacked the Watchers Council. She was now guessing that Wolfram and Hart had gone and absorbed the remaining resources of The Council.

She needed a place to stay for the day, where they would both be safe from the sun, and the assassins after them. Her thoughts about returning to Wolfram and Hart alive had slowly disappeared and she knew that the assassins were out to kill both her and Drusilla.

At that instant Darla was struck with an idea of where to hide. They would stay right next door to the houses that The Slayer and her people were occupying. The assassins wouldn't dare go that close.

**6:00 A.M – Somewhere in Sunnydale**

Lindsey McDonald hated getting up early in the morning. If the sun wasn't up yet, it wasn't time to get up according to him. Still though, today he would make an exception. If everything went according to plan today, the fate of the world would be sealed and there would be nothing at all that the Slayer, or anyone else on this plane of existence would be able to do to change the momentum and his position would be sealed within Wolfram and Hart as the head of all the resources under control of the LA Branch. It had been a huge logistic effort to get to where they were today. They had to arrange for the resurrection of Caelecae, they had to play a part in securing a part of Cordelia's essence; they had to possess the soul of a hero, plus the soul of someone who seeks redemption, and they needed protection. If everything was going according to plan, every vampire, bringer, Turokhan and every demon which served Wolfram and Hart that was in the city would now be making their way to the Hellmouth. Surely, everything hadn't gone according to plan. The resurrection of Illyria and Inanna wasn't meant to occur. The remainder of Angel's crew were meant to stay in LA and they were meant to team up with the O Ops contingent which was now in the city, and all of the Potential Slayers were meant to be dead by now, which they weren't sure on seeing as twenty or so had just seemed to drop off of the face of the earth, obviously being kept hidden from them. The last thing required was to get Caelecae to the Hellmouth in time for the ritual to suffice, and to make sure that the Slayer and her group were present. From the intelligence that a number of operatives had gathered for him, it looked like that the latter part of that plan was going right on track.

Lindsey got dressed and grabbed a quick meal to last him through the day before he went to check on Caelecae in the roomy four bedroom house that they had commandeered for themselves. He opened the door to her room and found that she wasn't there.

"Not again," he said under his breath. It was hard to watch over something which thought that you were nothing more than a tiny, tiny ant. As if on cue, the front door opened and the figure of Caelecae stepped in through the door. "At least you're using doors now," Lindsey said to her. He saw that Caelecae looked up to him.

"I will enter and exit a structure as I see fit," she replied to him. They had to leave the last house that they had commandeered because she kept on walking through the walls.

"Where did you go?" Lindsey asked her.

"I do not require sleep and grow bored of being confined within these walls. I performed several acts of violence on some Turokhan which were hunting for the few surviving humans of this town," Caelecae replied.

"Well, come, we're finally doing something," Lindsey replied. "Today's the day." Caelecae tilted her head to the side, reading him.

"Today? Do you know for what purpose I have been summoned to the Hellmouth?" Caelecae asked.

"Not a clue," Lindsey lied.

**6:00 A.M. – Base Camp – Sunnydale – California**

Buffy hadn't been able to get back to sleep for at least the last two hours and she was now sitting on the couch in the lounge-room having given up on trying to get back to sleep altogether. From what they had learned from the vampire that had played a part in their ambush, today was the day that everything was going down at the Hellmouth, and they had no idea what it was, what it was going to do, or who was involved with it. So far, only five extra people had turned up since the spell that Willow had cast, and it wasn't nearly enough for them. According to Giles, Willow, and Buffy's mind, it wouldn't be for an extra week or so until a lot of people started turning up to help out in the fight. For those on the Earth who were still alive, transport was a major issue. All the Airlines and most ships had ceased operation. Buffy hoped that most of the people still alive had learned never to travel at night anymore, and even then it was dangerous travelling during the daytime, according to what they had heard from Riley in Los Angeles. Most of the Bringers and Vampires which had come out and openly attacked across the world had been taken out by various counties' military forces, and the fact that after everyone realised what was going on and came out of shock, fought back.

From what they could tell, a lot of vampires and demons had been heading to both Sunnydale and Los Angeles during the last couple of weeks, not to mention the fact that a large number of Turokhan Vampires and Syophers had seemed to appear out of nowhere. Buffy guessed that the main concentration of Bringers were also in Sunnydale.

Buffy looked out the window at the rising sun in the sky. Everyone would be awake soon, and then they'd have to go to the Hellmouth to face something nobody knew about.

"Can't sleep either?" Buffy heard Faith say from behind her. Buffy just slowly shook her head. There was a long moment of silence as Faith sat on a chair adjacent to Buffy and looked out the same window that Buffy was. "How you coping?" Faith gently asked. Buffy looked from the window to Faith and then back out the window.

"It's, confusing. I don't know how to feel. Everything's trying to destroy us. We've been through God knows what on that evolution quest thing. I mean, this isn't the body I was born in. It looks like me, it feels like me, but way stronger and faster, but, it's not me. I just don't know what to do," Buffy replied.

"I get that. I went through it with you B. But, I was asking about Dawn. How are you coping with that?" Faith asked after a brief pause.

"Better than I thought I would be," Buffy replied at first. "She's gone, for now, but I know that we'll find a way to bring her back. It'll have to be after all this is over, there's not enough time right now." There was a long silence as Buffy decided whether or not to tell Faith the rest of it. Eventually, she decided it was best to tell her. "Also, I think, that if we bring her back now, and if it doesn't go our way, maybe she's better off where she is now," Buffy said. She kept her eye contact away from Faith, and eventually when she looked to Faith, Buffy could see that she was nodding her head slowly.

"That's understandable Buffy," Faith replied. The pair of Slayers now sat in silence, gazing at the coming sunrise in the Eastern Sky. "Hey B, there's something I need to talk to you about, it involves Cordelia," Faith said after a while. Buffy looked to Faith and wondered what it was that was on her mind. She didn't get the chance to open her mouth before Faith continued. "I don't know if it's just me, and that's why I'm asking you about this, but, does Queen C seem a little… avoidant to you?" Faith said to her. Buffy thought about it for a moment.

"No, she's fine by me," Buffy replied. "Why do you think so?" Buffy asked after a moment.

"Well, she's never here, she's always off on some 'mission' to help some other people somewhere else. And she's never really had a conversation with anyone, and she's way different to what I remember her as back in the day," Faith explained to Buffy.

"Well, yeah, she ascended to a higher plane of existence. Something like that would make her realise that whatever God there is, it's not the Executive of Revlon," Buffy replied.

"Yeah, but that's the thing B. What if it's not Cordy?" Faith queried.

"What do you mean? That it's some higher being helping us disguised as Cordelia?" Buffy asked. Faith just rolled her eyes slightly before replying.

"The First B. It can imitate dead people, why not Queen C herself," Faith said. "Think about it from The First's point of view. What better than having all of the white hats looking up to you for guidance and not even questioning what you tell them to do," Faith explained. It was obvious to Buffy that Faith had been thinking about this for a while now.

"Yeah, that's true, but she's touched something hasn't she?" Buffy replied as she scanned her memory.

"Nope B. I've been thinking about this for a week or so now, and I haven't seen her touch anything, come through any doors or anything," Faith replied. Buffy sat there scanning her brain for a few more moments.

"You're right, I can't remember her touching anything," Buffy replied. "But what about her helping us? She's killed demons and vamps for us?" she queried Faith as well as backed up her own thoughts that Cordelia could not be The First.

"Well we know that The First can make itself look like a whole bunch of people at the same time. How do we know that it wasn't just killing images of itself?" Faith replied. There was a long moment of silence as Faith let Buffy contemplate what she had been told. "She's never here, meaning that there's less of a chance for The First to slip up and make a mistake. I hate to say it B, but what better way to get into the inner circle than come back as a member of the old circle, saying that you're the ultimate good guy," Faith voiced her opinions. Buffy was having a hard time believing it. It was obvious to her that Faith definitely thought that Cordelia wasn't the legitimate Cordelia. "And don't forget about that 'mission' to the morgue that she sent me on. It was a bloody trap to get me out of the way," Faith added.

Suddenly a thought snapped into Buffy's head. It was something that the people from Los Angeles had told them, it was the whole reason that they had come to Sunnydale.

"Tara?" Buffy replied. "If Cordelia really is The First, then why bring Tara back?" Buffy asked, remembering that Fred had told them that Cordelia had shown up and told them to get to the newly resurrected Tara at the time.

"Maybe she's a part of The First's bigger plan?" Faith suggested uneasily. "A way to get close to Willow. The First could be influencing Tara for all we know," Faith said after a while in coming up with a reason to bring Tara back.

"You're right, we have to ask the Los Angeles crew all that they can remember," Buffy replied. "We'll do it as soon as everyone's up," Buffy added.

"Right," Faith replied whilst nodding her head. The pair of Slayers sat in the lounge room, a dead silence as both of their brains worked overtime. After a while, Faith got up. "Going to the kitchen, need breakfast," she said. Just before Faith entered the kitchen, Buffy turned her head.

"Faith," she said.

"Yeah B?" Faith replied.

"Keep this quiet," Buffy replied.

**8:00 A.M. – Base Camp – Sunnydale – California**.

Buffy stood alongside Faith in front of Wesley, Gunn, and a still distant and injured Connor, all that was remaining of Angel's group from Los Angeles. They had asked for everyone else to leave the Summers' house for a while and go to one of the other houses while they discussed what Faith had brought up to Buffy earlier that morning. Cordelia was outside, and Buffy and Faith wanted to question the others before they tried confronting Cordelia about the issue. Both Buffy and Faith decided that if it was determined that Cordelia was in fact The First, that they pretend not to know. That way they would have an advantage over The First, allowing it to circulate in their midst without the knowledge that they knew it was imposing.

"No, I don't remember Cordelia touching anything," Wesley explained to them.

"Me either," Gunn said with an ever increasing look of concern on his face. Connor just shook his head in agreement with the other two.

"This could pose a serious problem," Wesley said after a while.

"Yes, we know. That's why we're coming to you, so that we might be able to use this," Buffy replied to him.

"If Cordelia really is The First, then everything we know might be a lie," Gunn said, referring to the explanations that Cordelia had given them all. Buffy's heart almost leapt out of her mouth as she heard a familiar voice come from the kitchen entrance.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Cordelia asked. Buffy noticed that Faith was slowly moving around behind her, and she was wondering what good it would do.

"Just this and that, you know," Faith replied.

"Someone touch her," Wesley said out of nowhere. Faith was the closest to Cordelia and she put her hand out. Instead of trying to leap out of her mouth, Buffy's heart now sank to the bottom of her stomach as Faith's hand went straight through Cordelia and Buffy heard an almost silent gasp from everyone in the room.

"You're not Cordelia," Buffy said to her. Cordelia looked back at her, stunned.

"Sure I am. Why wouldn't I be?" Cordelia replied to her.

"You're The First," Connor said to her.

"What? I'm not The First," Cordelia replied. An awkward silence filled the room as everyone looked at Cordelia, analysing everything that she did, analysing her entire appearance. "Oh my god, you're all serious," Cordelia said, breaking the silence. "I'm not The First. Why would you think I'm The First? I'm not The First."

"Did you think we were that stupid?" Wesley attacked. "Do you think that eventually we wouldn't figure you out?"

"Please? Do I look like The First Evil?" Cordelia said. "Look, I'll prove it." Cordelia took a step sideways and to Buffy's amazement picked up the kettle. "See, I can touch things. Not The First Evil." Buffy was confused. Last time that they had checked, The First couldn't touch things.

"But…" Buffy started before realisation swept over her. She reached out, her hand firmly touching Cordelia's shoulder, and she gently pushed Cordelia out of the way. In front of her, she saw Faith. An awkward silence filled the room as everyone now faced Faith. No one moved, and no one said a thing. Buffy slowly took a step towards Faith, and then another, and then another. She noticed that everyone else in the kitchen was slowly moving to surround Faith. In the back of her mind, Buffy knew that it was an instinctual movement to surround a newly discovered enemy, but the rational part of her mind knew that there was nothing that they could do to the image of Faith in front of them.

"I was this close," the image of Faith said without warning, raising it's right hand and showing it's thumb and index finger held in a pincer like fashion close together. "This close," The First said again. "Had you all suckered in."

"Create mistrust within the group, question our most knowledgeable members," Wesley said, voicing the thoughts of everyone in the room.

"It was a setup all along," Gunn said. "She was the one who told us to go to the Hellmouth that night," Gunn said referring to two nights ago when they had been scouting the Hellmouth and had been trapped.

"You planted that vampire there as a trap all along," Buffy said, further voicing everyone's thoughts.

"Hey, we can play the blame game all you want. The fact is that I played my cards right, except a lot more of you were meant to die that night," the image of Faith said directly to Buffy. At that moment, Xander and Willow came in the kitchen door from the backyard, which was now joined to the houses behind and next door to the Summers' house. Buffy saw Willow stop in her tracks and Xander do so behind her as they took in the situation.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Willow asked nervously.

"This is a nice little setup you've got going here. Got a barrier and everything," Faith said to the group, turning to Willow at the end. "It still won't stop me."

"What's going on?" Xander queried.

"Well, I'll be at the Hellmouth having lunch with every vampire in Sunnydale. Come around if you want to even have a go at trying to stop me," the image of Faith said before disappearing in a flash.

**8:10 A.M - Above the Hellmouth – Sunnydale - California**

Everything was set, and all the pieces of the board were in motion. In front of him stood the nervous representative from Wolfram and Hart; Lindsey McDonald. The three _moping_ were on the ground in front of him, two holding a soul each, and the third holding a tiny ball of powerful blue energy; the essence of Cordelia Chase. The old one known as Caelecae walked around the room, examining it and doing a number of things that Ethan Rayne thought to be very strange, but after all, she was an Old One. Vampires and Turokhan patrolled the building while a large number of vampires, Turokhan and Bringers waited in the surrounding buildings until the right time. He had cast the spell which placed a dome of energy over the surrounding area, creating a barrier to the sunlight, allowing the vampires and Turokhan into the daylight, so long as they stayed in the area. In front of him stood the image of Jenny Calendar, The First Evil.

"You're sure that they're going to be here?" Ethan asked the image of Jenny.

"Our Slayer and her band of merry followers can't resist the chance to stop a big bad evil from being unleashed upon the world, even if they know it's a trap," The First said, "so yes, they're definitely going to be here."

"Is she going to be here? We can't do this without her," Ethan asked.

"Of course she'll be here, all the Scoobies will be here," The First replied. "It's going to happen."

**9:33 A.M. – Summers' Residence – Base Camp – Sunnydale – California**

They had been reeling from the discovery that The First had been imitating Faith. Immediately, they had told everyone at the camp and systematically they had began questioning everyone to what Faith had said to each of them over the last week or so. They had no idea when Faith had disappeared and The First had taken her place, and they couldn't believe that it had happened to someone that most of the people were familiar with.

Buffy looked around to the other people sitting at the dining room table with her. She was sitting with Willow, Giles, Xander, Wesley, Oz and Naomi while Gunn, Cassia, Cordelia and Nicola stood by.

"Of course it's a trap," Wesley said

"The fact of the matter is that we can't just sit here and do nothing about it," Giles replied.

"We have to go in there and make an attempt. We know that something big is going down at the Hellmouth, and we have to do something to try and stop it," Nicola said.

"Do we know that?" Gunn questioned. "This could be another complete setup like before."

"We'll be careful. We have to go," Willow added to the number of voices talking over one another.

"We're not really doing too well in numbers. The people turning up from Willow's spell aren't too good so far," Naomi said. "Even I can fight better than half of them."

"Not to mention that we're now down one evolved up Super Slayer" Xander added too. Buffy's mind wondered off from the argument as she heard some sounds coming from the front of the house.

"Everyone be quiet!" Buffy said loudly. Almost instantly, everyone fell silent. "Do you all hear that?" Buffy was sure that she was hearing things, but she heard another noise from out the front again.

"It sounds like a car door," Naomi said. Just then, there were three loud knocks on the front door. Immediately Buffy went to answer it, her mind was wondering who it was. She knew that it was probably someone else turning up to help them fight against The First due to Willow's spell she had cast two days ago. She opened the door and was stunned at the sight before her. Faith was standing in the front doorway with a huge grin on her face.

"Hey B, look what the cat dragged in," Faith said while turning outward from the doorway and gesturing with her hand onto Buffy's front lawn. Buffy could see a number of cars now parked in the street, and a lot of people getting out of them. She noticed that they were all females, and they all looked pretty young. Most of them were carrying weapons, and most of them had wounds and blood over most of them.

"Who are they? More Potentials?" Buffy asked, connecting the dots that they were all armed, and that they were all Female.

"Nope. They're Slayers B. Every last one of em."

* * *

Oh my god it feels good to get that out! I've been planning the last line of this chapter ever since Faith was introduced into "Post Grave" (About chapter 4,5,6, somewhere around there). I've been working towards this bit for SOOOOO long! I've had that line in my head ever since then.

The Slayers will be revealed next chapter

Chapter after that **It happens**

**Reccomended References for Next Chapter**: THE CHARACTER REFERENCE PAGE - Specifically - "Skye and Rhonda", "Amanda and her group", "The Coven"  
Chapter 30: Evolution.

Those are some reccomended readings for next chapter to fully understand what's going on... well, not to understand, but to have an idea how things leading up to this have been put throughout the story....icould go and give you a reference for EVERY thing that happens, but i'm hoping that you actually remember some things in this story and your mind will fill some of the things in.

Anyway, next chapter

**Chapter 40: Intricate Plotting**


	43. Chapter 40 Intricate Plotting

Here it is folks. This is the most intricate and long running "Story Arc" of this story. By "Story Arc", i mean a series of events unfolding to give an outcome... The events i am talking about Span from the beginning chapters of Post Grave to now, chapter 40 of War Cries. I believe, that, if you've read this chapter and know what happens, and for some reason you decide to read the story again, you'll pick up on most of the hints. Some of them are so subtle that i've forgotten some of them (due to my long periods of not writing).

I've referenced a LITTLE amount of things, because it's 11:40 at night and i can't be bothered to search through the what must be somewhere like 170,000 words for references to things that have happened in the story.

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 40**

**Intricate Plotting **

**Flashback – 9 Days Ago - Timeline of Chapter 33**

_(Start of section copied and pasted directly from Chapter 33). _

**Sunnydale Morgue – Sunnydale – California**

_Amanda couldn't believe how much things had degenerated in so short of a time as they had driven from the warehouse to the morgue. The black hooded figures were running through the streets almost totally unopposed, they had to run over a couple of them just to get here. There was no way that the Coven was on time, they had been too late. They had quickly looked up the records and found their comrades bodies. She had considered staying in the town, but it was only a slight consideration. Currently she knew that they had to return to the Coven and regroup as quickly as possible. They were half way through transporting the body of their second comrade to the van when two things occurred simultaneously. One was that the Crystal hanging around Amanda's neck activated and she heard Samantha's voice in her head._

"_Amanda, we need you at the Coven at once. Things are going to get out of hand quickly and we need you. This Crystal will generate a portal which should end up right in the middle of the Covenstead," Samantha's Voice echoed through Amanda's head. The other thing to happen was that the doors burst open and the Slayer Faith came through them._

_Faith saw the people moving the dead bodies and recognised them at once. They were the ones who attacked both her and Buffy, and who apparently killed her. She had the feeling that they were up to no good and realised that Cordelia must have sent her here to stop them. Almost as soon as she had come in through the doors, a portal opened in the centre of the room._

"_You're dead," one of the two women out of three people said. Faith recognised her as the leader from the last time. From what she knew, she was fast and lethal, and her green eyes sent a chill down her spine._

"_Yeah, I was," Faith replied. "I'm Faith version two, improved and more kick ass than the last version," Faith replied sarcastically. Faith saw the woman eyeing the portal in the middle of the room and knew that they were going to make a move for it very soon. As if the woman could read her mind, she and the other two of her team dashed for the portal. Faith ran for them in an effort to stop them, but she was knocked over and forward, and before she knew it, she came to a stop and looked up. The last time she remembered, the ceiling of a morgue wasn't blue sky and trees. She turned and looked to the ground, and found that she was lying on a forest floor. She flipped herself up and looked around to see that she was in the middle of a forest, the woman and the other two members of her team were behind her, and there were a number of other people looking at her._

"_Shit," she said._

_(End of section taken directly from Chapter 33/Start of Unknown events)_

_Faith looked around her and there were now people coming, and she could see that at least two of them had a crossbow in their arms. She looked to see that the woman she had been trying to stop in the Morgue was walking over to one of the men and that she had grabbed his crossbow and was now pointing it directly at Faith's head. Faith wasn't going to take any chances with these people, after all they had once killed her (reference to Chapter 29 – Steps towards Evolution), but that had been before she was a hopped up super-slayer. Still, she was pretty sure that she couldn't dodge a crossbow bolt from two metres away. _

"_Who are you?" Faith asked the woman. _

"_My name's Amanda, that's all I can let you know for now," the woman replied. _

"_Why? I think I deserve to know what's going on? You tried, no you DID kill me!" Faith replied looking at her straight in her emerald green eyes which seemed to have a slight animalistic characteristic to them. Faith didn't realise that her concentration had wavered until someone moved, bringing her out of her day-dream. She turned and looked at the people surrounding her. There were the other two members of this Amanda's team, all with the same haunting green eyes and brown hair. There were also four young girls who could only be a few years younger than herself who had obviously been waiting on this side of the protal for Amanda and her team to return. Faith could tell that the girls were fighters and that they were on edge by the way they stood and the way they looked at her. Faith judged that she'd be able to take down three of them before Amanda would be able to get a clear shot at her, but Faith decided to wait it out, as they hadn't killed her, again, yet. She received a poke in her back by the front of the crossbow, instructing her to move forward. _

"_Walk to the path straight ahead," Amanda said to Faith. She did as she was told, but not before resisting a bit and not moving at all. _

_Five minutes later they had arrived in a large clearing in the forest with a lot of sunlight streaming down from the gap in the canopy above. Faith looked up to the sky to see that the sun was only just rising. Faith knew that it had been just past sunset in Sunnydale, and she figured that they must have lost some time while travelling through the portal. She was nudged from behind by the crossbow, pointing her in the direction of a large wooden cabin in the middle of the clearing. She looked around as she walked, noticing that there were smaller cabins within the tree line, and that there was twenty odd people just milling about the area. Faith heard a loud crack from above, and she looked up only to see a wave of blue energy pass across her vision of the sky. _

"_Move," Amanda prodded again. Faith stopped looking up at the sky and resumed her movement towards the cabin. _

_They entered the cabin and Faith saw a large rug in the centre of the floor. A number of strange looking items decorated the tops of side-tables, with some of them seeming to glow a bit. The cabin had electric lamps mounted on the walls, illuminating the insides of it. Faith admitted that it was a large cabin in which at least seventy or more people would be able to fit into. At the far end was a raised section with a table and two chairs, each facing their end of the cabin. Faith could see that there were two older-looking people sitting in the chairs, pointing to something on the table and discussing it with each other. Faith stepped further into the cabin, and saw that her escort remained, minus two of the young girls which had obviously gone off elsewhere. When she heard the door close behind her, the two people at the table looked their way and got up and started to walk over to them. Upon closer inspection, Faith could see that one was an older woman, her posture told Faith that she had great power and authority, or at least completely believed that she did. The older man's image said that he was wise beyond his years, which judging by his appearance, must have made him one of the wisest men on the planet. _

"_Amanda, it's good to see you return," the old woman said. Faith was startled when the woman spoke, her voice was similar to that of a twenty year old. Faith had expected a crabby, old, croaking voice, not the one of youth, energy and spirit which came out of this woman. "And who's this you've brought with you?"_

"_This is Faith," Amanda replied._

"_Faith the Vampire Slayer?" the older man questioned. _

"_Yes, this is she," one of Amanda's team mates replied. There was a moment of silence before the older woman spoke again. _

"_Didn't you say that she was dead?" the woman queried Amanda. _

"_As far as I knew, she was," Amanda replied. _

"_How'd she get here?" the older man asked. _

"_She turned up just as we opened the portal and got in the way. I knocked her through trying to get past her," Amanda replied. _

"_Hey, hey, standing right here!" Faith commented. At that, everyone fell quiet and looked at her. Faith didn't have a clue who these people were, where they were from, where she was now, or what they wanted. There was a long silence as the pair of older people stood in contemplation. _

"_Amanda, you and your team need to stay, everyone else may go," the elderly woman said after a while. Faith watched as the younger girls left the building and Amanda's team slowly surrounded Faith. The elderly woman waved her hand, and the team stopped and allowed Faith to move about freely. _

"_Come Faith, I imagine that you have many questions, and we have much to discuss," the older man said to her while gesturing for her to come forward. Faith looked behind her and saw that Amanda had lowered the crossbow._

"_Yeah, that's right, I got a tonne of questions… First of all, who the hell are you people, and where the hell are we?" Faith demanded while stepping forward, almost in the elderly man's face. Faith was surprised that he didn't even flinch, back away, or break eye contact with her. He slowly nodded and continued. "You are in the middle of Exmoor Forrest in England," he started. _

"_England!" Faith replied, obviously surprised. _

"_Yes," the elderly woman replied. "We are a Coven of witches, and this is our Covenstead," she continued. Faith didn't know what a Covenstead was, and she guessed that this Elderly woman picked up on it. "It's where we live."_

"_Oh, forgive our rudeness. I am Montague, and this is Samantha. We are the High Priest and High Priestess of this Coven, in other words, we are the leaders," The elderly man explained to Faith. _

"_Am I a prisoner here?" Faith asked them. Samantha and Montague looked at each other, and gave it a moment's consideration. To Faith, it seemed as if they were talking to each other without words, which she guessed was probably true, since they were the leaders of a group of Witches. There was something about them that she knew that she should know, but she couldn't put her finger on it at the moment. _

"_In a sense, yes," Samantha said to her. Faith could feel herself shaking her head slightly. _

"_You are free to move around the Covenstead, but you can not leave," Montague said. _

"_Yeah, and who's going to stop me?" Samantha and Montague looked at each other again, as if deciding if they should tell Faith something or not. _

"_You can leave if you can," Samantha said. "But there's nearly one and a half thousand vampires, bringers and various demons surrounding the perimeter of this place that will stop you," Samantha added. Faith could feel her eyes bulge at the mention of the number._

"_One and a half thousand?" Faith questioned them. _

"_Yes," Montague answered. Faith didn't know what to think at the moment. If there were one and a half thousand vamps, bringer and demons surrounding the place, why wasn't everyone here dead and the place burned to the ground. Immediately, the answer struck her. They were alive because they were on the same side. It made perfect sense. The people who were guarding her had tried, and succeeded in killing her, so this Coven had to be bad news. Faith's stomach almost leapt out of her throat, but she did her best to show that nothing had changed. With one quick swift movement she took three quick steps to her side, punched one of Amanda's team in the midgut, used his body to swing herself around him so that she was behind him and wrapped her elbow around his neck and began to squeeze. She was surprised by the reaction time of the rest of Amanda's team, as they were already in positions that would benefit them the most, Amanda already having the crossbow pointing straight at the only exposed part of her body; her head. _

"_You know I'm not fast enough to dodge a crossbow bolt. But I am fast enough to shove him in the way of one coming for me," Faith said directly to Amanda. Faith began to back away with the man in her grasp towards the doorway. "Call the vamps and them off and tell them to let me through or I will snap his neck," she commanded. _

"_We can't do that Faith," Samantha said calmly while slowly approaching Faith. "We're as much of a prisoner here as you are Faith. They've surrounded us to keep us in," Samantha said. _

"_What?" Faith asked in confusion. _

"_We have known about The First coming for a long time now, and we've had a plan all along which could very well stop the vampires and bringers under it's control. We tried our hardest to keep it completely secret, but somehow, it found out, and now, it's throwing all it can spare at us," Samantha said slowly so that it would sink into Faith's head_ (Reference to the first time it's revealed the Coven knows something – POST GRAVE – End of Chapter 14).

"_We have a barrier over the surrounding area. It's the most powerful barrier that we've constructed and for now, it's keeping them all at bay," Montague added. _

"_That's what that was," Faith said, referring to the energy wave that had passed over the sky as she was entering the building. Montague slowly nodded his head. _

"_That wasn't the barrier itself. The barrier is invisible until something interacts with it. That crack you heard as you arrived was one of our witches repairing the barrier," Montague explained. Faith released her grip on the man in front of her slightly. It made sense, but immediately she tightened her grip on his neck. _

"_Why'd you send these people to kill me in Sunnydale?" Faith questioned with the same ferocity as before. These were the people responsible for killing her. If it hadn't been for Buffy, and whatever mystical forces that was behind both her and Buffy, 'evolving', she'd be rotting in Hell right now. _

"_We were meant to bring you back here, alive," Amanda said to her, "but things got out of hand."_

"_Why were you going to bring me back here?" Faith questioned again. _

"_You're a part of our plan, Faith," Samantha calmly replied. Suddenly, out of no where, her brain connected the dots. She had heard about Samantha, Montague and this Coven before. _

"_You're the ones who almost killed Willow! You tried to take her power against her will!" Faith almost screamed _(Reference – POST GRAVE – Chapters 1 to 10, all sections dealing with Willow)_. She now knew how powerful these people could be. _

"_That was a part of our plan too, however Willow was never meant to be hurt. We needed her power to accomplish our goals," Montague said to Faith. _

"_Oh yeah! And what are your goals?" Faith questioned them, enforcing her grip on their person. _

"_To defeat The First Evil," Montague replied. _

"_How!" Faith barked back. _

"_By creating an army of Vampire Slayers," Montague answered to Faith. Faith didn't know what to think, a Vampire Slayer army. She didn't know how such a thing was possible. _

"_And that's what you've done here? Those girls? They were Slayers?" Faith questioned. _

"_Yes, they are. They all are," Samantha answered. "We are on your side Faith, we will not hurt you." _

"_Oh yeah, then why the armed escort?" Faith questioned again. _

"_Because we believe that you would hurt us, given your perspective," Montague said. Faith knew that her mind was beginning to believe it, but there was still one little detail that she needed to know. _

"_How?" Faith questioned. "How would you make a Slayer Army, and why was I needed?" Faith saw both Samantha and Montague look at each other again, before they started to explain. _

"_The original plan was to get you to come here, and to magickally make your body and mind believe that it was dead, and therefore transfer the Slayer power, but you wouldn't be dead, your body would only think that it was. We would then essentially revive you, and then go onto the next Slayer. We distributed our people throughout the world, posing as agents of The Watchers Council to get Potential Slayers to come to our location, because if you have a lot of Potential Slayers in one location, it would be much quicker to go through the process of making them all Slayers," Samantha began to explain _(Reference – WAR CRIES – Chapter 13: Never Underestimate Potential, Chapter 13: Unlocking Potential, Chapter 14: Coming Home, Chapter 16: Showdown, Chapter 20:The Beginning of the End) (Shows path that "Skye and Rhonda" took to get from their home to The Coven, and everything else to do that I can find (there is more) to do with The Coven creating Their Slayer Army. Haven't even looked in Post Grave, but there's a lot there))).

"_We had to keep everything as secret as possible. That's why we only used our people, such as Amanda and her team here. We couldn't tell the Watchers' Council, we couldn't tell anyone what was going on, because if someone else knew, then the probability of The First, or anything else for that matter learning of our plan would dramatically increase," Montague added for Samantha. _

"_However, not everything went according to plan. In order to trick the body and mind to believe that it is dead, a lot of power is needed. We needed the power that Willow possessed, but we didn't get it. Some of it was originally ours, and some was hers and other people's that she had absorbed. We tried to coax it out of her, but she wouldn't give it up, so finally we tried to take it out of her, but it didn't work. You see, if this procedure is performed without a large amount of power and control, the subject has a much higher risk of actually dying, and we couldn't have four out of every five girls we did the procedure to, die. We were going to get you here, do the procedure on you, and then let you go. Then, we would repeat it on the next Slayer, and the next Slayer, until we had an army of Slayers," Montague said. Faith took a long moment to absorb it all. She slowly and purposefully connected the dots in her head. They needed her, for the Slayer Power to be passed onto one of the girls that they had here, who they could control. Since she died anyway, they didn't need her any longer. _

"_You didn't get Willow's power? So how'd you do this?" Faith queried. There was a long moment before Samantha finally broke the silence. _

"_You have to understand that we are on a deadline. If we didn't get enough Slayers by a certain time, The First would have too many resources around the world, and all this would have been to waste. We had to get the Slayers activated and trained as soon as possible," Samantha said. _

"_How?" Faith demanded. _

"_We had to use a combination of science and technology to stop the girls' hearts for at least seven minutes before reviving them," Samantha said. "That's the required time for a Slayer to be dead before her powers are passed on." Faith couldn't believe what she was hearing. They had killed every one of the girls in the camp and brought them back to life in order to create the Slayer army. Sure, the end justifies the means, Faith thought, but not if the end was an army of seriously emotionally scarred Slayers. She knew that if they were the good people that they were, that they would have done it that way first, if it was totally safe, instead of trying to take the power from Willow. The fact that they hadn't tried that method first led Faith to the conclusion that it wasn't safe at all. _

"_How many didn't come back?"_

"_Ten, out of thirty," Montague said after a long moment's silence. _

"_You sick bastards. You murdered ten innocent girls," Faith said. _

_Later that Day_

_Faith walked through the grounds of the Covenstead. She looked at the girls who were sitting by a fire, and some girls who were sitting on the front steps of one of the caverns. She thought about what she knew was happening in the world. She knew that most of them would live to see the ones around them die before they died themselves, because they were special. They were "Chosen". They had the strength to stand before the forces of darkness. It made Faith sick to think of what means that Samantha and Montague had gone to to create this army, and at the moment, they didn't look too much like an army at all, just a bunch of sad, frightened little girls. Faith was going to do everything that she could to stand up and protect these girls. They didn't deserve this. They didn't' deserve to become A Slayer, just because they were 'needed' for a cause which may be hopeless, according to Samantha and Montague._

_Faith had an idea to get things started in the right direction, and get some influence from outside the Coven into these girls. She needed to know if Samantha and Montague's people could do it or not. She headed into the cabin and confronted Samantha and Montague head on. _

"_Can you divide up the area that the barrier is over into sections, by using magick or what-not?" Faith asked them, interrupting their conversation. _

"_Yes, we can. Why?" Montague asked. _

"_Because I know how we can get out of here," Faith replied. _

"_Where would we go then. More will come after us," Samantha stated. _

"_We go to Sunnydale, where these girls are needed the most. Usually that's the place where everything goes down. And these girls are Slayers now, and there's nothing I can do about it, and there's nothing that I can do about how they became Slayers. We're Slayers, We're needed," Faith said, knowing that it was a long shot at best. _

"_How do you propose we get out of this mess first?" Samantha asked. _

"_We all get together in one group. You split the space underneath the barrier up into a heap of sections, with littler barriers. Then, all we do is let them come, turn on the barrier, and then there's sections of them trapped. We can go and take out a section at a time with all our numbers until there's none left," Faith suggested. She was extremely surprised by her thoughts, and she had no idea where they had come from. Back in the day, she would have never thought of something like that, she would have preferred to go down fighting, taking as many of them with her as possible. She was still planning on doing that, without the 'going down' part. Deep down, Faith knew that she wasn't "back in the day", and that a lot had happened to her since that time, including the destruction, resurrection, and improvement of her body, mind and spirit. _

**Present Day – 11:00 A.M. – Base Camp Meeting Point – Sunnydale – California.**

Faith could see a death glare emanating from a certain red head. She was lucky that it wasn't going towards her, because she would be slightly scared. She had heard about what Willow could do, and seen some of it first hand, and Faith was praying now that she wasn't either Samantha or Montague, at which Willow's anger was directed. Faith looked to Giles, who had been there as well, and she was sure that she didn't want to get on his wrong side, ever again by the look on his face. He looked as if he was going to go "ripper" on their asses. She had heard from Xander what Ripper was like. Faith smiled at the idea of Ripper, she always knew that Giles had to have a bad side. Faith looked to Cassia, who she remembered used to be a resident at the Covenstead, and she just saw pure and utter disgust on her face.

"Due to these amulets around our Slayers' necks, The First can't detect them, or anyone wearing one. Therefore, The First has no idea of the number of Slayers that we have, or no idea of where we are at the moment. If what you say is true, and we have to go to the Hellmouth at least in the next two hours, The First will be surprised by our numbers, that much I can guarantee," Samantha said to everyone.

* * *

**TWO HOURS UNTIL "IT HAPPENS"**

Anyway,that is the "conclusion" of this arc, however the events that have led upto this point will continue to have an effect on characters in the story...

and, you can use your own imagination to fill in the blanks of how The Coven, The Slayers and Faith got to sunnydale. It's a big fight, sectioning off large groups of vamps and bringers in order to take out a smaller numebr, and then doing so again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and you get the point.

Ie, think of the Future timeline, where both Buffy and Faith seem to Command different groups of warriors (many of Faith's include Slayers, one of which is Skye). That's eventually where this "Story Arc" is now headed, although not very important to the story (Faith's determination to protect these new Slayers).

**Next Chapter- Chapter 41**

It might be a while for Chapter 41 to come up, as **'It happens**' in this chapter, and i am going to try and make it better than EVERY other chapter i've done (Yes, that includes 'Renasence" and "The Beginning of The End").

5 Days maximum!


	44. Chapter 41 Metamorphosis

**Authors Notes: **Wow. I actually did it. I updated! Woohoo! 

This is 'it' that I was talking about. Pretty damn good chapter if I do say so myself.

Leave plenty of reviews, it'll make me write faster.

Chapter 41 Metamorphosis 

**12:30 PM – Sunnydale Highschool**

The air was perfectly still, and there wasn't even a sound to be heard in the wreckage of the once immaculate corridors of Sunnydale's Old Highschool. Not even a Slayer's hearing could penetrate the silence. Buffy crept forward, with a broadsword in her hands and held out in front of her. She took about ten paces forward and looked around the wreckage in front of her. There was still nothing, no movement or sounds what so ever. Usually she'd expect to hear the sounds of at least a rat or something, but they were all gone. She took one last inspection and turned around and went back out into the daylight.

"It looks all clear," she said to the large group that had assembled out the front, consisting of everyone that they could pull together to do this. The group split up and began to head in different directions. Faith was leading a team of Slayers who would enter the school from around the back. Oz's group, consisting of Naomi, Natalie, Brett, and Daniel was accompanying Cassia and a few fighters that they'd picked up from Willow's spell, were going to guard the perimeter of the school and make sure that nothing got in from the outside, and more importantly, nothing much got out. The witches from the English Coven were going to help Oz's group. That left the Scoobies and Angel's former group accompanying Buffy. They walked up to her, and she turned around and together, they entered the school.

Faith sucked at being the leader. She didn't want to do it, and she had rattled off a huge list of names of who would be better to do it than her, but she had been stuck with the job. Wesley and Giles's understanding of it was that she was the only other 'evolved' Slayer, and that the other Slayers would look up to her. Also there was the fact that most of the Slayers knew who she was after the occurrences with the Coven in England.

It was lucky for her that Skye was helping her out with the leadership role. The two had formed a bond since Faith had awoken at the Coven in England, and she thought that Skye was an alright girl, and a damn good Slayer from what she could tell so far.

"You feeling anything?" Skye asked Faith, snapping her out of her thoughts as they walked around the school to enter it from the other side.

"Nothing from my Slayer senses. But I'm feeling something, from that sixth sense they are always talking about," Faith replied.

"Me too," another one of the girls said, obviously listening in on their conversation.

"Well, we know it can't be vamps," Rhonda said, who was Skye's friend. "Cause, you know, daylight and all." About half a minute later, they found out that it wasn't vampires that they were feeling, but something else; Bringers. They seemed to appear out of no where, and attacked with a ferocity that almost none of the girls were prepared for.

Faith immediately whipped out a short sword that she had attached to her waist and started hacking, looking out for the deadly knife blades of the Bringers. She managed a couple of quick glances at the Slayers that she had with her, and was relieved to see that they were all handling themselves against the Bringers alright. It was a matter of minutes before the corpses of the Bringers were all lying on the ground around them. After a quick check, there were no serious injuries, just a couple of deep cuts that would need stitches on any normal person, if they weren't a Slayer with accelerated healing. They had just regrouped, when another lot of Bringers appeared and started to attack, but this time there was about twice as many of them, and they were all using swords instead of daggers.

"Someone doesn't want us getting anywhere," Faith muttered to herself right before she picked up a knife from the corpse of a dead Bringer, and used it along with her short sword.

Everyone was moving around, keeping an eye on the surrounding buildings and down the street. She could see that they were all trying to keep busy, and to make sure that they'd see anything before it tries to kill them. Cassia could see the werewolves spreading out, and some of their features starting to emerge. She could see the normal regular humans, of which she was a member, all gripping their weapons tightly and becoming very edgy as the sounds of fighting could be heard from either inside, or down the side of the school. Cassia was standing in the middle of the road, and she was watching as Amanda and her team were walking around the park opposite the school. She watched Amanda closely, as the abomination she was. Cassia watched with pure loathing as Amanda looked up into one of the trees, and then with what could be described as unnatural feline agility, jumped up into it, leaping up from branch to branch, until she was on the top. She knew that Amanda wouldn't have made a single sound, and that she would have barely made the leaves on the branches move at all as she leaped up them. They were all abominations to nature and to mankind, and the people who had created them had no moral guidelines what so ever, and they were apparently fighting for the side of 'good'.

Cassia closed her eyes as she stood in the middle of the road. She could now sense those very people had created Amanda and her group. Samantha and Montague had split up and were now spreading out, like all the others were. Cassia shifted her attention off of them, and to her surrounding environment. She could now feel everything around her, all the people, all the animals, the few of them that there were. It was almost better than sight itself. She could feel the very strong presence of Willow as she walked with Buffy's group. She could feel the 'odd' sensations of Buffy and Faith, and when she probed the feeling deeper, a great dread and fear came over her. She decided that she didn't want to know. Cassia knew that there were very, very, powerful magicks in use in the reconstructed basement of the school, but she couldn't even get any hint at what they were.

At that moment, Cassia's attention shifted to the area that she was now occupying. She had felt a 'tremor' of magickal energy. She used her senses to investigate it further, and a very, very small hole in the dimensional walls surrounding the school. She asked the Earth to allow her to see what it was, but was denied. She decided to use some of her own power, much like Willow and the rest of the witches that she knew of did, and she gasped, stepped back and opened her eyes as she realised what was there. She was surprised to see that a man was standing right in front of her, speaking to her.

"…you going to just stand there, or are you going to do something…" he started.

"Get your weapon. They're already here," Cassia said to him as she realised that there were beings waiting right in their area. The only thing was that they were out of phase with reality, and therefore couldn't be seen or detected until they wanted to come out.

Ever since they had entered the area, Willow knew that something wasn't quite right. She could feel it in the air around them. There was far, far, too much energy floating around than there should have been, even for a Hellmouth. They slowly made their way to the basement, and Willow and the rest of the group were extremely surprised when they reached it with no opposition at all. A number of them entered the room, while the rest of them stayed out in the corridor, to make sure that nothing could get through into the room from the outside, and, to act as backup in-case things went bad.

They rounded the corner into the rebuilt library/basement and could see the figures of Ethan Rayne, Lindsey McDonald and the Old One, Caelecae, standing and looking right at them.

"Lindsey. Should have known you'd have something to do with all of this," Wesley said to him.

"How nice of you to show up. How's Fred doing?" Lindsey said to him. Willow looked to Ethan Rayne and got a feeling of what she must have looked like when she went over the deep end. He was a sickly pale colour, with black veins bulging out of his skin. His eyes and hair were completely black, and when he spoke, she could tell that it wasn't his voice.

"All the gang's here," he said as he looked at them, although half of everyone that he'd know of 'the gang' were in the corridor around the corner. Without warning, a ball of magickal energy formed in Ethan Rayne's hand, and he hurled it towards Willow. It impacted straight on her chest, and she was knocked backwards into Wesley, falling unconscious for a couple of seconds. When Willow awoke, it was like nothing she'd ever seen before. The entire world around her was dancing with colours representing various magickal energies which were swarming around the room. She looked over to her friends, and was confused at the looks that they were giving her. They had all stepped away from her, and were now looking at her as if she had grown a second head.

It was then that she felt it. The energies that Ethan Rayne had put into her body were anchored in and spreading, very quickly. They gave Willow feelings of incredible pain, darkness, longing and sorrow. She could feel it spreading throughout her veins, and into her mind. She felt herself losing control of her mind. The power inside her was increasing exponentially, and she couldn't counter it. It had spread throughout her entire body, and Willow only felt completely helpless as she lay on the ground, not able to get up or do anything. It was then that she felt that the infection was moving out of her body, towards Ethan Rayne, and taking all the energy and power that it could, with it. It was essentially draining Willow, and she knew that it would kill her if it was able to continue. The pain started moments afterwards, as it felt as if her entire body was on fire. She opened her eyes and pleaded with Giles, the first person that she saw, to do something about it, but it was then that she saw the magickal barrier separating her from the rest of the group, which must have been pushed backwards at some point in time. She could feel herself writhing on the ground, and suddenly she noticed that someone was screaming, which was her.

Apart from the pain, she could feel that her whole body was now numb and limp. She couldn't even move her limbs, even though she was trying as hard as she could. She briefly got a glance of her friends, who she could see were now fighting off some Turokhan Vampires. That's when she became aware of another presence in the room, one which was right next to her. Without any other words to describe it, it was evil, pure and utter evil, and Willow could feel it coming closer to her body. She opened her eyes, and looked around as she lay on her side, but she couldn't see anything there, although she knew that it was right in front of her. If she could, she would have been trembling at the feeling of it's entirety, it's power, and it's pureness. It was like nothing else Willow had ever felt before, and she could feel it entering her body.

She knew that she was letting out a scream which was like nothing else she had heard before, as she feared for the existence of her very soul. It was entering her body, pushing her soul and brain to the side as it inhabited it and took control. Willow went to close her eyes, but she couldn't. She tried again, but she realised that she couldn't because 'it' was controlling them now.

With all her might, she reached out with what remained of her mind to the power of the Earth, to establish a connection with nature and to ground herself. If she pulled it off right, Willow should have essentially unlimited power to use to rid herself of this infection which was inside her. She was trying so desperately to connect with the elements around her, but she was hindered somehow. What usually would have worked, didn't. What she could usually sense, she now couldn't.

"_Too Late Little Witch,"_ a voice said to Willow inside her head.

The Old One, Caelecae was getting out of the indentation in the bricks that her body had made in the wall. She was pissed, and obviously coming towards her. Willow noticed that she was now standing up, and that her body was moving. She knew that she had some lost time, as she couldn't remember how she had been able to do all of this.

"You've given this Witch more power than even I have. What have you done human!" the Old One exclaimed at the figure of Ethan Rayne, a mere stupid tool to use in this campaign. Willow knew that she didn't have a high opinion of Ethan, but she knew that she didn't think of him as a tool to be used. She watched as the Old One came towards her, and Willow watched as she raised her hands, and dark, black energy emanated out from them, hitting Caelecae and sending her flying backwards into the wall again. Willow could feel the _thing_ inhabiting her body, and she knew that her body was being controlled. Caelecae got up and stood in front of Willow, and Willow watched as the Old One was flung to the ground by what seemed to be nothing. She could feel herself walking up and standing above the Old One, and she could feel the pure, un-channelled power flowing from the Earth itself, through her body, and being used to defeat Caelecae. She watched as Caelecae started to tear at her stomach, as Willow's hand was pointed towards it. She watched as a realization went through the Old One that it was going to actually die, and she saw the pure fear in it's shells' eyes.

The infection that had taken over her body was now leaving her, and Willow could feel some kind of control coming back over her body. The negative feelings were slowly subsiding, and Willow's mind began to cease to panic. Before Willow knew what had happened, she had slumped to the floor again, not able to move her body. Her head was tilted to the side and she was looking at the form of Caelecae, or what was left of it anyway. The shell was lying on the floor, not moving, it's eyes closed. Even though Willow couldn't move her body, she could tell that Caelecae was dead. Pain was still coursing through Willow's body, but she was distracted from it when she saw movement from Caelecae. Willow got the same feelings as when the infection had invaded her body, but this time they weren't inside her; they were emanating from Caelecae. It's eyes shot open, and Willow was horrified to see that they were pitch black, darker than anything she'd ever seen before. She watched as a metamorphosis began to occur to the Old One, as it's hair and, eyes and skin turned from a reddish colour, to a black colour.

"Come on, we've got to leave," Willow heard a voice screaming. She could feel her body being lifted off of the ground and carried in someone's arms. She could see that they were moving very fast, for someone who was carrying a limp, lifeless body in their arms, and she guessed that it was Buffy.

It had all gone terribly wrong for them inside the school. People were badly injured. Giles, Gunn, Wesley and Connor had to be literally dragged out of the school, meanwhile Willow needed to be carried. When they had reached the outside of the school, they could see that it was total chaos, and that they hadn't fared any better. Blood was over everyone, and most of it was their own. Faith's group were mostly injured and they had lost some in their numbers. It was then that the 'thing' had come through the outer wall of the High School. There demons everywhere outside, and they had a rough time trying to escape until the now black Caelecae had let out an almighty roar, and all the demons and bringers had stopped in their tracks and cheered like they were at their favourite hell lord's gathering. It had given them enough time to escape.

Once they were back at the Summers Residence, Buffy had put Willow down on her bed. She was still in the same state, not moving, but with her eyes open. They had tried to get her to talk, but nothing had come out. They didn't even know if she was able to talk. No one knew the meaning of what had happened in that basement, and no one knew what it meant for Willow.

It was just after sunset when she heard it. A blood-curdling scream came from upstairs, and Buffy raced upstairs to her room. She could see Willow huddled up in a ball in the corner of the room, her knees pulled up to her chest and she was screaming.

"Willow, Willow," Buffy saw a Tara say who was kneeling down in front of Willow. Buffy watched as Tara put a hand on Willow's arm, and Willow shot up and raced across to the other corner of the room. Her hair and veins were still black, but her eyes were back to their normal colour. Buffy watched as Willow sunk down to the ground, sobbing and holding herself, with tears streaming down her face. She watched as Willow curled up in a ball, and buried her head into her knees. It was then that Buffy noticed that her whole body was trembling.

It'll be explained what happened to Willow, and What happened to Caelecae next chapter. These next chapters, I'm gonna try to make a bit dark, so, yeah.

Leave us some reviews and tell us what you think.

6


	45. Chapter 42 Acting Out

**Authors Notes: **more updates to follow soon. This is the latest chapter. The paragraph below is for those wanting to know what general direction this story is taking, and for those who have been commenting that this story needs to be wrapped up soon, and why It is not going to be. 

The purpose of this story was originally to set up a war between two sides. The Humans and The First Evil. This story was then going to explore the ethics, morals and feelings of characters towards war and associated things with a war, but in the Buffyverse. When I started on that direction, I did not know how to accomplish those things, ie, what I should write about. After seeing a show which explores some of these aspects (Battlestar Galactica 2003 Series) and has given me ideas on how to implement some of these aspects (and others) into this story, I've got my wits about me now, and we're delving into that. This story will go on for a while, because these aspects have not been explored.

By the end of the story, I want you (the reader) to doubt whether Buffy n Co. have done the right thing, and (maybe?) if they were even fighting for the right side. This has ALWAYS been the intention of this story, just did not know how to do it.

Therefore, this story, from here on in, will be getting darker and 'grittier' (definition of gritty – see shows like 'The Shield' and "Battlestar Galactica 2003" and to an extent '24' – those shows are gritty – where hard decisions need to be made which may not benefit all etc etc, all that stuff). If the style of writing seems to change, that's only because I'm struggling to go between 1st person (BSG Story I'm writing) and third person, and because it's been a long time since writing on this story.

* * *

**Chapter 42 Acting Out**

**Summers' Residence – Sunnydale California**

She traced her finger around herself in a circle, as if cutting through the air around her. Willow was creating a sacred space around her which would help her prepare. It had been seven hours since she had awoken from being possessed by The First, and in that time, she'd decided she needed to do something about it. Willow knelt on the floor, a faint glow appearing and quickly disappearing representing the circle she had just created.

"Any gods out there which are looking down on me at this moment, I ask for your blessing," she said quietly to herself. Her mind wondered to her friends, and Tara. They didn't know what she was going to do. They still thought that she was in this room, sleeping. Willow knew that many of them wouldn't understand, that they'd call her reckless, but after seeing what she had as The First possessed her, she knew that it needed to be done.

"_Snap out of it Rosenberg,_" she thought to herself, willing her mind back onto the task at hand.

Willow closed her eyes and she began to use her senses to feel out the room around her. Slowly, as she acquired more and more information through the use of her abilities, the power within her began to grow. Willow could feel her panic start to set in; fear that she'd lose control like she had done so many times before. Almost instantaneously, Willow could feel that fear and panic become crushed by the overwhelming motivation to accomplish her goals. She wouldn't let herself spiral out of control again, she couldn't afford to.

She reached out with her senses further, aided with her magickal abilities. She could feel the power within her growing exponentially as she became more connected to everything around her. Willow could also feel something dark within her, but with the power of her mind, she kept it locked away and hidden. She could identify everyone within the confines of the base camp that they'd created without even trying. She could see Buffy, Giles, Nicola, and even Tara.

She felt the energy of the Earth beneath the house, and she began to manipulate it around her, forming various types of invisible shields for a variety of purposes. Once she was done, Willow opened her eyes only to notice that the veins on her arms were protruding and had turned black. She grabbed her hair and it was also black. Panic started to set in again, but it was quenched as Willow realised that it would only be from the sheer amount of power passing through her body as she felt completely in control. She bowed her head and closed her eyes in supplication.

"Goddess Artemis, hear my prayer. I for your protection and blessing as I take action to prevent the destruction of your children on this day. Fight along side me today with your silver bow and I vow that in the heavens, I will take up arms as your ally… Blessed Be Artemis, Daughter of the Almighty Zeus and Leto. Goddess Kali. I ask you to make my actions swift and accurate on this day so that I may protect my colleagues and your creations. Blessed Be, Kali, Dark Mother," Willow prayed.

It had been a long while since Tara had checked on Willow, she had been busy going over strategy with Giles and Buffy as to what they could do in the long term. She liked that they looked to her for input, seeing as they thought that she often had a unique perspective on things. As Tara approached the door, she could hear Willow's voice from within the room.

"… colleagues and your creations. Blessed Be, Kali, Dark Mother," Tara heard as she opened the door. She was shell shocked to see Willow kneeling on the floor, head bowed, her hair and veins black.

"Willow," Tara said, recognising it as her own voice as she spoke. She felt a chill go through her body as Willow looked up at her with completely black eyes. Tara could feel the amount of energy flowing around the room, and it was more than she knew that anyone was capable of handling. She heard the words spoken by Willow as If she were miles away,

"I love you," Willow said to her, the words barely registering in Tara's mind. She had taken her eyes off of Willow in an effort to concentrate, but it was no use, her mind was a complete mess. She looked back up at Willow, and it felt as if she was saying goodbye as she looked into her black eyes. "I'm sorry," Willow said. Moments later, she magickally disappeared, teleporting away.

Willow had felt her heart break when she teleported out of the Summers' Residence, leaving Tara behind. In her mind, Willow was fairly sure that she was not going to come back from this encounter. She knew what she was going to put Tara through, because she had been through it herself when Tara had died, but at least this way if she succeeded, Tara would probably live. Otherwise, they would both die. At least Tara would have a choice in the matter this way, and could live out the rest of her life.

Willow stopped and made her mind forget about the subject. The best thing she could do now was to focus and get a bit of her energy back. It had taken a fair amount of effort to teleport out of the Summers' Base Camp, through the barrier she had constructed which was meant to block that sort of thing. She didn't want to change the barrier so that she could get through, that would weaken it. It was safer for everyone at the Summers' Base Camp if she expended a bit of her energy to get through it.

Willow was on the rooftop of a building next to the Magic Box. She took a moment to feel the breeze upon her skin, savouring it. She looked around at what was left of the town. A number of buildings had structural damage from various fights which had occurred, the rest of them looked derelict due to a lack of maintenance. She looked out to the town, taking one last look at it before she set out to accomplish her goal.

Taking in a deep breath, Willow closed her eyes and reached out with her mind. It didn't take much effort for her to find what she was looking for. The First in the body of Caelecae was like a beacon to her, to everything magickal all over the world. Luckily enough, it was right out the front of the former Sunnydale Highschool. Willow knew that she'd be close enough to close the Hellmouth once and for all out the front of the school. She was just about to teleport to The First's location when she had an idea which might save herself from death today, maybe, hopefully. She reached out with her mind's eye to the area just outside the barrier of the Summers' Residence. Then, she travelled down, twenty metres to be precise and she set up a barrier about 2 metres long, one metre wide and half a metre high. She poured as much energy as she was willing to expend into creating the barrier, and even put in a feedback loop of energy with the earth, making sure that it would be sturdy. She then began pulverising the rock within the barrier into dirt, creating a cavity within the earth.

"Hope that'll work," she said to herself before teleporting away.

**Summers' Base Camp – Summers' Residence.**

Both Nicola and Tara had been scrying for Willow for about half an hour. The rest of the gang waited until the two witches came up with an answer as to the location of Willow. They had all been shocked when Tara had told them her version of what had transpired within the bedroom.

"It's not working," Tara said to Nicola. "I think she may have changed the barrier, so that we couldn't find her," she explained.

"I know. I gave up ages ago," Nicola replied.

"Then what have you been doing?" Tara asked.

"Trying to work out what that feeling in the air is," Nicola replied. Tara just glanced back at her blankly. "You can't feel it? The air is charged with a lot of energy, all over town. I don't know exactly what it is, but I have a feeling that if we find where it's strongest, we'll find your girl," Nicola replied. Tara nodded her head and closed her eyes, attempting to concentrate. After a few moments, when she had made herself calm down, she realised that what Nicola was saying might be right. The air was charged with energy.

Half an hour later, and they knew that they had found something. The entire group had left Base Camp, and as they neared the old Sunnydale Highschool, they began to find carcasses of demons. Some were sliced in various ways, limbs missing or just sliced in half, others were scorched, and yet others were mutilated. Something had been through this way, and whatever it was wanted to cause some serious damage. They could hear a lot of noise coming

They rounded the corner so they could see the park across the road from Sunnydale Highschool. Within it, everything was levelled. Trees which had existed there the previous day were no longer there, no traces of them remaining at all. What boggled everyone's minds was the sight before them. Demons lay strewn across the ground and two upright figures stood inside the park, one in the middle, and one on the edge closest to Sunnydale Highschool. Bricks were being torn from the buildings surrounding the park and were being flung towards the figure nearest Sunnydale Highschool at incredible speeds. Most of the bricks could barely be seen as they flew through the air, the only things visible were their impact upon the figure. Tara looked closely and could see that the person in the middle of the park was in fact Willow, and she guessed that the figure out the front of Sunnydale Highschool was The First.

No one had moved yet, too shell shocked from the incredible sight before them and too afraid of moving any closer in case Willow mistook them for a demon and sent a brick their way. The flying projectiles seemed to be having no affect on The First at all, which was just standing still and withstanding the onslaught. It was then that Tara noticed a reaction from Giles. She looked to him to see his eyes move to the side of the battle. She looked to where his attention was focused.

"Ethan," she heard Giles say. She knew that the figure was that of Ethan Rayne, who had become one of the lead minions for The First. She was shocked to see that he was moving towards Willow with a sword in his hand. Suddenly, she saw something move from the side of her eye within the park and was horrified to see that a large axe had unlodged itself from the hands of one of the demons and was flying towards Ethan guided by an unseen force. She watched as Ethan prepared a shield which would have saved him in the nick of time from the axe, had Willow not used her sheer power to destroy it a millisecond after it had been put up. She watched in horror as the axe flew into Ethan's body and out the other side and ploughing into the remnants of a brick wall, effectively cutting Ethan in half.

Willow knew that her friends had arrived, but she had placed a barrier around the area making anyone who came in, not want to get any further. She had felt Ethan's approach and had stopped him immediately, all the while her attention had never wavered from the body of The First standing in front of her. She knew that she had killed Ethan, and she knew that it was necessary. This was a war for survival, and nasty things needed to be done to win. She understood that now, after The First had possessed her body. She had seen some of the things which would probably happen in the future. She had seen parts of The First's plans, and it needed to be stopped as soon as possible. She knew that if she had only immobilized Ethan, that he'd come back to hurt them again at a much later stage.

The bricks weren't having any effect on The First, that much was clear, but they were distracting it long enough for Willow to begin to close the Hellmouth. As soon as she had begun, she knew that she wouldn't be able to close it completely because The Key had been used to open it, a power much, much, much above her. She could however, partially close it so it was like it was before; a weak point between dimensions instead of an open orifice.

She sensed a change in the figure before her. It was now approaching her, bricks still impacting on it like water upon rock: doing almost nothing. She stopped using the bricks and started to focus half of her mind to create a series of barriers between herself and The First, while the other part of her mind remained focused on repairing the Hellmouth.

Almost as if it were in slow motion, Willow saw The First just simply walk right through the barriers she had constructed as if they were paper sheets. She now focused all of her mind in creating the final barrier, and poured almost all of her energy into it. Willow was glad to see that it had halted The First's approach, but as The First's fist impacted upon the barrier for the first time, Willow felt it fail and crumple. She received one punch from The First, and her body was sent flying across the park and impacted upon the wall of the building across the road. With the last of her effort, she reached out with her mind to the cavity below the Summers' Residence which she had created and teleported into it.

They had been drawn to the battle from its onset. The amount of power being exhibited was more than any of them had experienced another being, apart from themselves, on this mortal plane of existence. Illyria and Inanna watched the battle of the human against what appeared to be Caelecae with interest. Once the barrage of compacted rock in the form of rectangular prisms had stopped, Inanna and Illyria started to become concerned. Caelecae had too much power, far too much power. Once the witch had fallen, they reached out with their senses available to them, therefore announcing their presence to Caelecae, realising what was in front of them. Just as they had hollowed out the bodies which they currently resided in, The First had hollowed out the body of Caelecae and was now controlling it.

"This is concerning," Illyria said to Inanna from their rooftop vantage point.

"Come. We must work together to extinguish this threat to us from this plane of existence and send The First back to it's non-corporeal form," Inanna said. Together they jumped down onto the street to confront the body of their former colleague.

**Twenty Minutes Later**

A bloodied Inanna and Illyria lay on the ground in the middle of the park, both very week. They had been defeated by The First.

"Come, we must leave this place," Inanna said, reaching out and grabbing Illyria by the arm.

"I have a plan. We must travel to the deeper well," Illyria replied before Inanna magickally transported them both to a location in the desert surrounding Sunnydale.

* * *

**Authors Notes: **Well, the Willow killing Ethan thing Is just the beginning of something I'm going to start exploring with the whole making this story 'grittier' (see AN at top) and exploring the ethics n morals etc of war.

Some questions to keep in your mind from this chapter…

What do Illyria and Inanna want with the Deeper Well? What will they do once they get there?

What made Willow have a sudden change of heart and go 'hardcore' (so to say)? What exactly did she see?

Will Willow Live? If so, how long will she be out of it in that little hole of hers? If not, what will they do without her?

The next few chapters will be dealing with Sunnydale, then we're making a jump to LA to see what's been going on there with the whole Wolfram and Hart, Angelus, O Ops, and Amy Madison. Reviews always welcome, and remember, they help me write faster.

Please forgive any continuity errors which arise within the next couple of chapters – haven't done this story in a while and have forgotten some of the details of what's happened (not any of the major stuff tho, save 1)

I've tried to look, but I can't find it. If anyone who's reading this and gets this far finds mention of Connor or Darla (and druscilla?) can u please let me know which chapter it's in. I remember I had an awesome arc set up for them (and angel and spike?), but I can't remember it and I'm fairly sure it'll come back to me once I read where the characters were story wise.

7


	46. Chapter 43 Wavering Morality

**Authors Notes**

I know that it's been a long time, again. Hopefully this time I shouldn't get too distracted. Uni, for what it's worth, is finally over. I just have a year long project to complete at work between 9-5 three days a week, and that's all my uni commitment except for a couple of assignments due in the next two months or so, so hence, more time for this. One thing for sure is that there won't be a 6 month + long break between updates from now on, to anyone who's still following this.

If there are continuity errors and differences in writing between my previous chapters, forgive me, i'm re-reading bits and got to develop my novel-writing skills up again.

And, unlike other breaks i've had where i've come back and taken the story in a different direction (but it still works out overall in the end), this time, i've kept the following set of ideas in my head right through the break, so this is the original direction of the story.

* * *

**Chapter 43 Wavering Morality**

**Night - Sunnydale – California**

The entire group had been out searching for Willow for most of the night. Skye, Nicola, Oz and Daniel, Rhonda, Connor, Cassia and three of Amanda's group had all headed back to the base camp for rest and recuperation, and to hold down the fort as well. The rest, were out in the town, searching. There had been no clue as to the whereabouts of Willow since she disappeared, and the morale of the crew was getting low. Xander knew Willow though; he knew, or rather hoped, that she was smart and had planned that out and she had somewhere safe to hide. Still, he wouldn't stop looking until he couldn't look anymore.

**Somewhere beneath Sunnydale**

Willow was unconscious, surrounded by rock in a magickally carved out hollow, supported by a magickal barrier which protected her. She had set it up prior to attacking The First in case this very event happened; she completely exhausted herself and got her ass handed to her. This was her safe haven where she could recuperate. Little did anyone know that she was also located beneath the Summers' Residence, and the barrier around the 'base camp' as they now came to call it encompassed the area that she was within as well, further adding to her protection.

There were no thoughts racing through Willow's mind, except for the ones focusing on regenerating her body, rest and drawing some energy from the Earth. Before she lost consciousness, she knew what needed to be done after she left this chamber, and it was going to take all of her willpower and strength, as well as the help of others within the resistance group, to accomplish it. She knew that many wouldn't like it, and that she'd have to fight everyone to accomplish the actions, but it was what was needed. It was going to happen anyway, whether it be by Willow or the military or some other witch game enough to try to take on such a task. Willow just knew that it was better that it happen on their terms, while everyone in the resistance in Sunnydale was out of town.

**Night - Summers' Base Camp – Sunnydale, California.**

They both stood looking straight ahead at the number of houses before them. They were both rigid and silent, just staring straight ahead. What they needed was within the central house, the kingdom of the human fighters, led by the Slayer, as the humans called her. That said Slayer was not at the residence at the moment, but a few other, less powerful slayers were, and that was exactly what Illyria and Inanna wanted. Still bloodied and weakened from the encounter with the corporeal version of The First, they knew that they were not in any shape for a fight. Illyria also knew that the humans, save for the red haired witch, could not put up any resistance to them.

"Two vampires are watching us from a nearby dwelling," Inanna said to Illyria, still not moving, using her senses to detect any life within a two block radius.

"They are more interested in what lies inside the barrier than us," Illyria replied. "Come, we need these Slayers." Illyria stepped forward, and the air in front of her rippled and pulsed with energy: the barrier that surrounded the Summers' Base Camp. Slowly, Illyria moved through the energy as it appeared to shift to a watery like substance to her touch. The barrier appeared to reverse back to it's original form once Illyria had passed through. Inanna followed in the same fashion.

"Powerful magicks for humans," Inanna commented. Illyria just huffed and continuted walking towards the Summers' Residence.

**Same Time – Summers' Base Camp, Sunnydale, California. **

They had arrived back at the base camp roughly fifteen minutes ago, and everyone was going through the processes of recuperating. The group had encountered a rather nasty group of demons after beginning the search for Willow, and most of those who returned to the Base Camp had suffered some kinds of injuries. Connor had travelled back to base camp because his injuries from the recent encounter at Sunnydale Highschool were still playing up on him. He was currently going through what was left of their weapons cache in the lounge room, and quite frankly, it was pathetic. They had an axe, one short sword, one large dagger and one crossbow left from what everyone had taken out on the search for Willow. Connor was thinking about going out and raiding some of the surrounding homes for some guns or more axes or other weapons that they'd missed when he heard a ripping and splintering sound behind him. He turned around in time to see two bloodied corpses come walking through the doorway, one looking like Fred, and the other like Michaela. It threw him for a second, that Fred had come walking in through the front door, but then it hit him, it wasn't Fred. It was an Old One which had hollowed out her body, and it was very, very, very dangerous. He looked at the bodies standing before him, and they were both covered in blood from head to toe. He didn't know whose, or what's, blood it was. Illyria and Connor's eyes met for a few moments, and in one of those moments, Connor thought he saw something, different.

"Obtain only the weaker ones, leave the stronger ones remaining," Illyria said to Inanna, and in moments they had split up and were moving through the house. Inanna had almost bolted up the stairs, while Illyria moved through the hallway to the kitchen at the rear of the house. Connor quickly decided that the people at the rear of the house would have to fend for themselves. He knew that Amanda and her group were in the backyard, doing some meditation thing, and that they'd be able to help Cassia, Rhonda Daniel. Before Connor had time to move, he could hear yells and scuffling sounds from upstairs. These Old Ones were damn fast. He bolted towards the stairs and leapt over the handrail and halfway up the stairs. Bounding up the rest of the stairs and rounding the corner, Connor could see a body draped over the shoulder of Inanna as she walked towards him and the staircase. He briefly saw an image of Oz turning into the werewolf behind her, but he didn't properly acknowledge it as he went to engage Inanna. He punched her in the face, but he realised with horror that it didn't register to her, and before he knew what was happening, he was flying backwards along the corridor from a punch from Inanna's free hand. Connor hit the wall hard, and it wasn't until he tried to get up that he realised that he had gone partially through the wall. As he regained his senses and got up, he just saw Inanna at the bottom of the stairs and heading for the door. Connor witnessed Inanna turn around and shout to Illyria,

"Move quickly Illyria." Connor just had time to witness that when he looked down and saw Illyria dashing out of the kitchen with a body draped over her shoulder as well. Connor leapt over the handrail, but it wasn't in time. By the time he hit the ground and recovered, both of the Old Ones were out the door. Connor couldn't let the Old Ones take some of their people, they needed all the people that they could get. It was up to him to try to get them back; he was the strongest fighter out of all of them which were at the base camp. He couldn't fail them, not after it was his uniqueness as the son of two vampires which had cost Fred her life. Illyria was meant to enter him, not her. He raced out the front door only in time to see Inanna wave her hand and a pulse of energy emanate outwards from her and hit the barrier, appearing to change it to a watery substance. He saw Illyria and Inanna, as well as the two bodies they were carrying, move through the barrier. Connor ran like he had never ran before, but it was too late. They all disappeared into a vortex which Illyria had created. Connor knew that they had lost those two people forever, and worst of all, he had no idea who they were. He didn't have time to examine who Illyria and Inanna had taken.

**Same Time - Premises next to Summers' Base Camp – Sunnydale, California. **

Darla and Druscilla had been holed up within the house for what seemed like an eternity now. They had spent their time, watching the coming and going of the people within the base camp, just waiting for the perfect opportunity for their target to emerge alone so they could grab him. Connor had yet to emerge, and from what they could tell, Spike hadn't emerged. They both knew that William would be within the base camp with the Slayer, but they had yet to even see him. Druscilla had said something about it being likely that he was chained up in the basement, and Darla couldn't disagree with her. They needed Connor so they could go back to Los Angeles. Something had overcome Angelus, something wicked and sinister, even in their view. Darla also knew that he was just being used as a pawn for The First, and that Angelus would be killed as soon as he had fulfilled his purpose. She knew that Connor was the key to his unbeating heart, whether it be Angel or Angelus, and she hoped that if she could convince Connor to face off against Angelus, he'd be lured away from The First. Then, and only then, would they reunite their family and begin to scour the countryside again. She knew enough of Connor to know that he would not let himself be killed by Angelus, but that he wasn't good enough to kill him. Connor would lure him out, and then run.

**Night - Outside Summers' Base Camp – Sunnydale, California. **

It was just after Illyria and Inanna disappeared and Connor stopped running when he felt the pain. He knew that it would have been from when Inanna punched him. He looked down, only to see a small dart sticking out of his abdomen. He took it out and could see some green fluid within it. Throwing the dart down, he looked around only to see two figures coming towards him from the front yard of one of the nearby houses. His vision began to get blurry and he began to feel himself swaying. Connor took a couple of steps back, attempting to get inside the barrier, but he knew he wouldn't make it. He strained his eyes at one of the approaching figures and recognised the face from some of the photo's Angel and Holtz had shown him: it was the twisted vampiric face of Druscilla. Connor could feel his eyes getting heavy, and he couldn't hold them open any longer. He felt his eyelids close, and felt himself stumble. He began to fall backwards, but he was caught by something. He opened his eyes again, just in time to see a bloodied and bruised Skye sink a stake into Druscilla's heart, dusting her. He could see another figure, a blonde woman or vampire moving towards them, and he only got to glimpse at Skye moving towards her before he was lowered onto the ground. He looked up at the face of the person who caught him and saw that it was Daniel, the other werewolf, in human form, with dried tears coming from his eyes.

"Don't worry Connor, we've got you," he said to him before Connor lapsed into unconsciousness.

* * *

Next chapter is coming soon…. Might even be tomorrow. Things are getting set up for some old (and "Old") characters to return. Reviews will make me write faster. Cheers - Aussie 


	47. Chapter 44 Neverending

**Authors Notes: **Well here it is, the next chapter. This is just prettymuch setting up some things to happen in the future. Still a fairly good chapter. In the next ten chapters or so, we'll be taking a move over to LA to see what's going on there. 

I knew that I said this chapter would be up within a day or so of the last one. The problem is that I have all these other ideas running through my head which could be used to start other stories. I know that these ideas would not pan out, and only deter me from writing this story (See my attempts at Battlestar Galactica Fanfictions in my profile for what I'm talking about). So, I've come up with a solution. In the next week or so, I'll be putting up a couple of new fanfictions. The purpose of these fanfictions is for me to just put down my ideas in a story format. Each chapter in the fanfictions will be a different idea. These fanfictions should be pretty good just for reading a collection of short stories of varying kinds. There'll be one fanfiction in each category: ie, there'll be one in Battlestar Galactica for Battlestar Galactica ideas, and there'll be one in TV crossovers for BSG/whatever crossover idea and BtVS/whatever crossover ideas. When I get ideas for other genres, I'll put em up in there. I highly recommend checking these out once I start, because I think they're some pretty good ideas. The first one I'll be putting up is a plausible way to make a BSG/BtVS crossover work.

Anyway, here's the chapter

Chapter 44 Never-ending 

**Summers Base Camp – Sunnydale, California**

Daniel had had enough of this. Looking down at the battered and bruised body of the blonde vampire that they captured, they still hadn't gotten anything but rubbish. She wouldn't say anything as to why she and the other vampire wanted Connor, or why they had been waiting to take him. He knew that it obviously had something to do with The First, as everything else that had happened in his life over the past five years had something to do with The First. He was even a werewolf because of The First. He knew that they needed to get information out of the vampire about why she was there before they could get anything out of her about The First. He and Skye had even questioned the vampire about Illyria and Inanna, as it was most likely that their abduction of Rhonda and Nicola was linked to the vampires somehow. The vampire had only replied that she knew nothing of anyone called Inanna or Illyria. Daniel had kept Skye from staking the vampire, she was furious. They had suffered a major blow, and Daniel knew that maybe Skye wasn't one of the best people to be questioning the vampire after her best friend had been abducted, and that maybe he wasn't too up for it either after Nicola had been abducted, who he had fought with side by side against The First for three years. He was thinking about wolfing out in front of the vampire and doing some serious damage, but he didn't trust his wolf side not to kill her, so he was keeping himself at bay.

"It will be easier for you if you talk vampire," Skye was saying, while leaning over the vampire and dripping holy water onto its skin a drop at a time. Daniel had to say, he was impressed with the vampire, she hadn't spoken a word in the last ten minutes. They really needed Connor to wake up, maybe he knew who the vampire was, but as of yet, he hadn't even showed the signs of coming back into consciousness.

Daniel saw movement in his peripheral vision and saw Oz coming towards him. Usually it was difficult to read Oz's face, but he knew that this time, something was wrong.

"Three of Amanda's team are dead. Two of them were killed by Illyria, as she took Rhonda, the other died from her injuries. Cassia couldn't save her," Oz said while looking down.

"Shit," Daniel replied. They were losing people by the handful, and they couldn't afford it.

"At the rate we're going, there's not going to be any of us left in two weeks," Oz said. "We've got to go after them, we've got to find them somehow," Oz said.

"We're trying to get some information out of the vampire, but she's not talking," Daniel replied while looking back at Skye, who was now trailing holy water down the vampire's forehead. He thought about what had transpired since they had come here, first they had lost Michaela to Inanna, and now Nicola had been taken. They hadn't done this badly in their years fighting against The First in all the years their group had been together. "Maybe we wait until Naomi and Brett get back and ditch this joint and go after Nicola ourselves," Daniel suggested, thinking that it was a good idea. In all their years fighting against the first, they were successful because they used 'guerrilla' tactics for the lack of a better word. They emerged from the darkness, hit out against The First, and then faded away again. They were never in the one place for too long, and therefore never vulnerable like they were now. As long as they had Naomi, they'd be able to make an effort at getting Nicola back. Although he knew that Naomi didn't like performing spells and liked staying on the psychic side, he knew that she would. They'd have to rely on her as their resident witch, seeing as Michaela was gone now. He noticed that Oz didn't give much of a reaction, but he expected that from Oz. He knew Oz well enough to know that he didn't agree with Daniel's suggestion, wanting to stay here. From all that Oz had said about this group here, Daniel knew that he believed that they were getting somewhere. From where Daniel was standing, it just appeared that the entire group was just getting played by whatever higher force decided to come along. He didn't know how long it had been since they had heard from Cordelia, their only contact with the higher powers which may actually be on their side, but he guessed that it was in the order of a week or two. She had just disappeared without any trace or word at all, just gone. Maybe she was off doing bigger and better things, Daniel didn't know and he didn't care. The Powers That Be always did nothing for them, and they weren't going to start now. It was time to take matters into their own hands, and go back to using Guerrilla tactics like they had before, they'd survive then.

Daniel heard muffled sounds from his side and turned to see that Skye was now standing behind the vampire, pulling its head back and using her hand to keep it's mouth closed. The vampire was struggling against its bonds and moaning through clenched teeth. He knew what she had done; poured holy water down it's throat. He watched as Skye released the vampire's head and it fell forward the vampire gasping and moaning in pain.

"Tell me, where did they take her!" Skye exclaimed as she powerfully backhanded the vampire, almost breaking its neck. "Where!" she further exclaimed.

"Where's Connor?" the vampire croaked back. The vampire was met with a fist to the face as a response.

"Why do you want him?" Skye exclaimed again, giving the vampire another backhand. Daniel watched as Skye paused, waiting for the vampire to reply. He knew that she was going over the top a bit, but he also knew that she, like everyone else, needed to vent. He was, however, shocked to see Skye give the vampire a roundahouse kick across the face, sending the vampire and the chair it was bound to onto the floor and making the vampire unconscious. Skye then dashed past them and ran out the front door. He followed Skye out the door, only to see her let out a loud and hoarse scream of frustration.

**Sunnydale – California**

They had searched as long and as hard as they could, with no luck. Willow was no where to be found, and that worried Buffy greatly. They were now missing their biggest hitter, the most powerful person they had, and she was missing. It wasn't a good thing that she may be a walking time-bomb half the time, but she was still missing. Their best chance at doing anything effective against The First, and she was gone. Buffy knew that Willow had done something great for the rest of them, the area surrounding the park where she and The First had fought looked like a demon graveyard, without the demons being buried. Buffy guessed that Willow had taken out a good nine tenths of Sunnydale's current demon population, and it was obvious, as they hadn't encountered a single demon while looking for Willow. Her, Naomi and a few Potential Slayers had scoured a section of Eastern Sunnydale, and were now heading back to the base camp, as were all the other groups.

Buffy felt as if they were losing this fight. She knew that it was bigger than anything they'd done before, and worst of all; everyone was looking to her for guidance. The more decisions she made, the more she felt as if she was taking the wrong steps. It seemed as if they were always one step behind, and there was no way to catch up. She knew that this was the case and that others sensed it. That's why they were all out combing Sunnydale in the early hours of the morning: Willow knew it and she tried to fix it by going on the offensive. Still, she needed to be strong for those that she was leading; like the Potentials. She tried to imagine what it was like being one of them caught up in the middle of this, but she knew that she couldn't place herself in their shoes. They weren't Slayer, let alone evolved Slayers like her and Faith. Deep down, Buffy knew that she could get herself out of almost any situation because of her new body, new skills and abilities, which she hadn't fully explored yet. She knew that she couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to be in the middle of this fight without Slayer strength, speed and reflexes, because it was a part of her and it had been for the past seven years.

As they were walking, Buffy had an idea which might lead them to have the upper hand, even if it was for a moment. They needed to sweep this town clean, get rid of every single last vampire and demon which even set foot here, and keep them out. Hopefully, it would send a message to The First that it couldn't set up its base here as long as they lived. It was their job to keep the Hellmouth safe and closed. It was their job to stop the onslaught of demons to the rest of the world, although Buffy knew that demons and bringers had started attacking all over the world, she also knew that it could be a lot worse if it wasn't for them and keeping the demons coming out of the Hellmouth at bay. Hopefully, if they drove all the demons out of Sunnydale, and kept them out, they'd be able to use Sunnydale as a starting point for fighting back in other parts of the country, if not the world. It also occurred to Buffy that undertaking that course of action could cause The First to come after them itself, and in that case, all they could do was run or die.

They were almost back at the Base Camp when Buffy heard a god-awful scream coming from the direction in which they were heading. She raised her weapon and checked the potential slayers and Naomi, and began to run towards the sound. Within moments, Buffy was in sight of her home. She could see a bloodied Skye out the front, shrieking to the world, with a bloodied Daniel approaching from behind. From what she could remember, they didn't have that much blood on them when they had left to go back to the Base Camp.

"What's wrong. What happened?" Buffy asked, looking to Skye and then Daniel after Skye had stopped. Buffy noticed that Skye was trembling. "What's wrong?" she asked to Skye.

"She's gone. Rhonda's gone, and now I've got no one," Skye stated.

"Daniel, what happened?" Buffy heard Naomi ask him. Buffy looked to Daniel, and even she could tell that he wasn't alright.

"The two Old Ones showed up. They walked right through the barrier, came into the house and took Rhonda and Nicola. There was nothing we could do to stop them," Daniel replied.

"Oh god, Nicola," Naomi said.

"Connor went after them. Two vampires were waiting outside the barrier for him to come out. They hit him with some kind of dart, he's been out ever since. Skye took one of them out, the other, we've got tied up in the lounge room…. She's not speaking," Daniel explained as he took Naomi into his arms. "Is everyone else coming back?" he asked Buffy.

"Yes, they're all on their way back here now," Buffy replied. She knew that her plan wouldn't work now, to rid Sunnydale of demons. Everyone's morale was shattered, and she knew that it would be hard to get anyone to take action for a while now. Buffy could feel guilt spreading over her. It was partly her decision to send the badly injured ones back home, and this is the price they'd payed for it.

"It gets worse," Daniel said as he looked to Buffy. "All of Amanda's team is dead, Amanda's the only one left alive," he stated. Buffy took that as a bad hit, Amanda's team, although untrustworthy, were very good at what they did; keeping to the shadows and hitting out when the enemy least expected it.

"What are we going to do? We're going to go after them aren't we?" Naomi asked, her face void of emotion. Buffy knew that she was going into shock. Naomi and Nicola had been close, all of the girls of Oz's team had been. Now, Naomi was the only one left.

"Do you know where they took them?" Buffy asked Daniel.

"No idea, they jumped into a portal once they walked back out of the barrier," Daniel replied to her. Buffy looked at Daniel, and she could see that he desperately wanted revenge, and to find the missing members of his team. She felt helpless at the moment. Willow was missing, and now this had happened. Buffy was the Slayer, she was meant to be on top of everything, yet it clearly wasn't the case at the moment.

**Somewhere in England**

A portal opened in the middle of a field, in front of a cave. After a few seconds, two figures covered in blood came through the portal at an alarming speed, carrying two other people. They were Illyria and Inanna, and they had returned to where they had come from: the deeper well. The guardian of the deeper well, appointed by the Powers that Be, looked at the two Old Ones, and he instantly knew who they were.

"You can not come back here," he said. Illyria looked at him, and put the body that she was carrying down. She quickly approached him, and before he could react, snapped his neck. She went back to pick up the body she had dropped, but was called to by Inanna.

"Illyria, there is a problem," Inanna stated as her hand was outstretched towards the entrance of the Deeper Well, a blue energy field stopping her from entering. Illyria walked up to the field and placed her hand on it, surprised that the field was strong enough to repel her.

"It is the work of the magicks of the old time," she stated. "This will be a problem."

5


	48. Chapter 45 Beginning of the New World

Authors Notes: next chapter is up. We'll get some insight into some interesting characters in this one, with even more insight into the next chapter. Notes about the next chapter will be found at the end of this one.   
Chapter 45 Beginning of The New World 

**Somewhere in England**

She walked along the pathway which had been cut through the forest, silently listening to the songs of the green. It sounded much different now than it had in her time, it sounded less healthy; sicker. It was the result of the humans' impact of their 'science' on the world. The way that the humans had developed was unnatural, hurting nature instead of working with it, at least in Inanna's view anyway. She had left the entrance to the deeper well a while ago, leaving Illyria there to find a way to break through the barrier into the well. The magicks protecting the entrance were from the old times, however they were both Old Ones, and she knew that the barrier wouldn't hold up against them for long. Nothing which existed in this New World could hold up against them for long, except The First and that would soon be fixed once they got inside the Deeper Well. Inanna paused for a few moments, thinking that she and Illyria should let The First wipe out humanity for them and save them the trouble once everything was accomplished. They would then wipe The First from existence and then they'd be able to help and restore the green to it's proper health and return the world to the origins from which it had come; The Old Ones as the ultimate rulers.

Inanna shifted the thought to the back of her mind as she began to hear sounds similar to numerous thunderclaps occurring at a repetitive rate in the distance. She did not know what it was, but she was walking in the direction they had been coming from for a while to investigate. As she got closer to the source of the sounds, she could hear the distinct sounds of a battle, and she guessed that the sounds were being created from some kind of weapon. In the opposite direction in the distance, she could hear a constant rumble which also sounded like thunder. She turned to look in the direction it was coming from, and could see two objects in the sky against the colours of the dawn. She focused her eyes and she could see that they appeared to be metal birds, with humans inside them. She watched as they got closer and closer and two small objects detached themselves from each of the metal birds. She watched as the birds began to lift themselves up and pull away as the two objects raced towards the ground under their own power. She turned around as the objects passed her and headed towards the sounds to which she had been approaching before. Not two seconds later, Inanna heard the sounds of two very loud explosions and she quickly deduced that they had been caused by the objects dropped by the metal birds.

Five minutes later and Inanna emerged in the vicinity where she had presumed the battle had occurred. In front of her was what was left of a small village with bodies strewn across the ground. She moved up to the bodies for a closer inspection and the first one she came across was that of a de-cloaked bringer. As she looked around, she realised that most of the bodies were of bringers or demons, with very few human bodies evident. Some of the bodies of the bringers and demons were shredded with small holes, in which Inanna could sense metal inside. She looked at one of the dead bringers at her feet and saw that it only had a single wound; a small hole in the centre of it's head. Inanna bent down and placed her hand over the wound and in moments, she withdrew it. She brought her hand up to her face and opened her palm to reveal that a small metal object was within it.

"_To think such a small object could do so much damage to a mortal,"_ Inanna thought in her mind, _"what fragile creatures these are."_ Slowly and methodologically Inanna began to sift through the bodies, looking for some human survivors. After ten minutes, she came across a sole body at the footsteps of what was once a dwelling for humans. It was a human body clad in a patchy green skin, and from what Inanna could sense, it was alive. Inanna bent down next to the body and placed her hand on it's chest and could feel the human respiring. She looked at it's face as it opened it's eyes, a look of terror coming across it's face. Inanna closed her eyes and concentrated, drawing energy from herself and from within the earth and pushing it into the human's body. The wounds that the human had suffered began to mend; skin sewing itself together and bones mending. Within moments, the human was completely healthy with a look of awe on it's face. Inanna retracted her hand from the human's chest and examined it for a few moments. It was male, and obviously strong. It may have even been a warrior for the humans. She examined him for a while more before saying "You'll do." She slowly moved towards the human, which had not moved since she had healed it, and placed her hand on it's head. A tiny pulse of energy moved between Inanna's palm into the human's brain and the human slumped back across the footsteps, unconscious, never to wake up again unless Inanna commanded.

One hour later and there was four more human bodies laying unconscious next to the original one, with Inanna standing before them. She looked down at the assemblage of bodies and then back in the direction which she had approached the village from. She extended her hand and with a wave, a distortion in the air appeared in front of her, quickly materialising into a portal. Looking through it, Inanna could see Illyria sitting cross legged with her eyes closed in front of the entrance to the Deeper Well, trying to get inside the barrier. She turned from the portal and picked up one of the human bodies and pushed it through the portal, and then repeated the process four more times. Once she was done, she looked through the portal and then closed it, deciding to listen to the green once more on the journey back to the entrance to the deeper well.

**Summers' Base Camp - Sunnydale – California**

Morale had crashed once everyone had learned the news of Illyria and Inanna's attack on the base camp. It also hadn't helped that everyone knew now that they weren't completely safe behind the barrier that they had worked so hard to construct. Wesley could tell that it was affecting everyone, including him. It didn't help matters that when they returned to the Base Camp that they found out that Darla and Druscilla had payed the camp a visit in an attempt to abduct Connor. It was, however, good news to find that Druscilla had been staked by Skye though.

"It was the Senior Partners, yes?" Wesley asked Darla as he sat on the couch in front of her. She looked bloodied and bruised, especially in the face, since Skye had spent so much of her energy on that part of her body. Darla just opened her bruised eyes as far as they could go and looked at him.

"They'll come here for me," she rasped in response to Wesley. Wesley knew what she meant. The Senior Partners would not have gone to the effort of resurrecting Darla just for their efforts to be wasted as she was captured. They would come, and in force, to get Darla back.

"Tell me how you got here?" Wesley enquired

"We drove," Darla replied, barely.

"Why are you here?" Wesley queried.

"To see my son," Darla shot back, forcefully. That was all that Wesley needed to hear. He knew the workings of Wolfram and Hart well enough to know that Darla would be in Sunnydale because they wanted her in Sunnydale, even if she didn't know it.

"You're right, they will come for you," Wesley said to her, not knowing whether Wolfram and Hart would attempt to retrieve Darla or not. "And we'll be ready for them," Wesley said.

**Sunnydale**

He looked down at the town which he used to call his home from the entry point on the Blackhawk helicopter. The town looked like a mess, and in the morning sun, he could see that the town was clearly abandoned. He directed the helicopter pilot over towards where he knew Buffy Summers' house was. Upon arrival over the residence, he could clearly see that the house, and a number around it, were still in their original condition, not having been rampaged through by demons, vampires or just general looters. He could also see that the houses around hers were populated with people, a lot of them, by the looks of the amount of people coming out to look up at the helicopter. Riley knew that he couldn't land, and didn't have time to stay, but he was here to offer help and support, and most of all, information, which he guessed Buffy needed. He turned around and began to shove large wooden boxes with parachutes attached out of the helicopter door. There were three of them in total, one with weapons, one with communications equipment and one with a little bit of food. From what Riley could see, the amount of food they were dropping wouldn't go a long way between the amount of people on the ground and he made the mental note that they'd need more next time. From his vantage point, it looked like quite an army which was assembling in the houses around the Summers' residence. He was very surprised when the air above the houses rippled with blue energy as the first crate dropped on top of the area. It was an energy barrier, which would obviously explain the good condition that the houses seemed to be in, in the general vicinity. He watched as the crates bounded off of the barrier and landed outside it. Satisfied that the packages had arrived safely, he ordered the pilot to turn back to where they had come from.

**Authors Notes: **So yeah, what are Illyria and Inanna up to? Any guesses? The next chapter will deal almost entirely with them… it could even be a 2 parter chapter. After that, we'll see some old characters return which we haven't seen in a long time. Also, just as a warning, there is going to be a mass character killing chapter coming up.. there's too many ppl running around and it's really hard to keep track of em all… I got an idea about how and when this chapter will be, so it is planned. Next update soon.

4


	49. Chapter 46 Awakening Part 1

**Authors Notes: **Okay, here's part 1 of this chapter. This was originally a much larger chapter, but I've chopped it down to two. Part 2 is almost written, I've just got to go back and do some editing. Expect it In the next couple of days 

**Authors Notes 2:** good news people, I have a set story-arc in my head which will take this story to it's completion. It may not seem like it's getting anywhere near to being complete, but it is. The events in the near future will still occur as I had been planning them out, except they are now apart of a much larger story arc. I am expecting this story to be 200,000+ by the end tho, so the ending is over the horizon a bit, but we're getting closer.

* * *

**Chapter 46 Awakening Part 1**

**Somewhere in England**

By the time Illyria and Inanna were satisfied, eighteen human bodies were laying outside the entrance to the Deeper Well, the location where the souls of the rest of their race lay slumbering. All of the human bodies were in perfect condition, as seen to by Inanna and Illyria, but were all in an artificial coma as induced by the pair. When Inanna had returned from her original expedition to the nearby human settlement, returning with a number of bodies, it had been decided by Illyria and Inanna that more bodies were needed. Illyria had lain the foundations of the magicks throughout the surrounding rock and through the barrier preventing them from entering the Deeper Well. All that it would need was the input of a large amount of energy, from either Illyria or Inanna and the invisible magickal tendrils that had been lain by Illyria would tighten and crush the surrounding rock and the barrier itself, much like a snake crushing it's prey with it's body. Inanna thought that it was silly of the Powers that Be, Wolfram and Hart and all other bodies which were now on a higher plane to think that anything they could put up would stop an Old One, a let alone two of the most powerful Old Ones which existed across a multitude of dimensions long ago. They would get through eventually. The only thing that any of the now higher powers could do was to determine the amount of time it took for them to overcome the obstacle. Inanna looked to Illyria, and without speaking, they knew that it was time. Inanna watched as Illyria closed her eyes and moments later, she could detect a wave of invisible energy pulse out from Illyria in the direction of the barrier. Inanna looked to the barrier and could see that it was fluctuating and pulsing in rhythmic motions. Moments passed, which turned into minutes; the barrier slowly getting weaker and weaker as it was literally overpowered and outmatched. The barrier eventually collapsed, leaving both Illyria and Inanna free to enter the Deeper Well.

As Inanna entered the Deeper Well, she opened her senses and could feel the power of magicks of old, the magicks used when her race ruled this earth, permeating throughout the walls, ebbing and pulsing and keeping the rest of the Old Ones in their deep slumber. She closed her eyes and let the power wash over her, each ebb of power taking her mind back to times before she was bound to this corpse, floating through universes and sowing the seeds of evolution among the lesser beings, toying with what she could create. To some races, she was the creator being, responsible for the entire universe, as so the belief of early human civilization. She was known as the mother goddess, Inanna, Gaia, and many more names that the humans had given to her. It was as she was lost in her thoughts when she sensed it, a distinct presence within the very air around her. She opened her eyes and looked around, only to see the walls of the entrance of the Deeper Well and Illyria, looking around much like she was.

"The First watches us from afar," Inanna said to Illyria, only voicing the fact known by both beings.

"Show yourself. We are aware of your presence," Illyria said to the ether around her. Inanna turned around as she sensed the presence around them slightly shift in it's energies and concentrate behind her. She saw an image of Caelecae standing before them.

"This plan of yours will not work. You do not have time to properly resurrect your people," The First commented to them. "My followers have almost overrun this island nation, and they are all heading to The Deeper Well at this moment, to destroy it and all of your slumbering, helpless brethren," The First said.

"This world is ours," Inanna replied. "An ethereal being such as yourself is not meant to have corporeal form. They are the rules of the universe, which cannot be changed by any being, including yourself," Inanna replied.

"We will raise our brethren and seek you out, where we will pulverise your shell into a useless pile of sludge," Illyria said to The First. "We will then drive you out of this existence."

"You had better hurry. Your time is waning," The First replied to them before its image shimmered out of existence. Inanna just looked at Illyria, alarmed at what The First had just said. The First was attempting to wipe out their entire race, and they had opened The Deeper Well so its followers could do so.

"We must seal this place with our power, making it impossible for the mortal beings of The First's minions to enter," Inanna said. She saw that Illyria looked at her, seemingly alarmed.

"One of the first rules of combat is that there is always a way to accomplish your objective. The followers of The First will find a way to enter this place, even if we do seal it," Illyria replied. "Hurry, we must use the body of The Slayer we abducted from the Hellmouth. The first of us to be resurrected must use its body, it will be the strongest shell of any of us," Illyria said. Inanna immediately went outside to retrieve the body of the slayer they had abducted from the humans in the town they called Sunnydale. She picked up the body of the Slayer and returned inside The Deeper Well, where she found Illyria standing in front of Neptune's sarcophagus.

"I will start resurrecting the others," Inanna said to Illyria as she placed The Slayers body on top of Neptune's sarcophagus.

"We will need more bodies," Illyria said just as Inanna turned to go. "We must revive our entire race or else they will be destroyed."

"There is surely to be humans within The First's followers on this island. When they come, I and the others which have been resurrected will stand guard outside the Deeper Well and give you the human bodies which we disable," Inanna replied. Inanna knew that it would be a difficult task not to break the human bodies, and she knew that they couldn't use demon's bodies to resurrect the rest of their race, or else some will be more powerful than Illyria and Inanna. Already, if the resurrection was successful, Neptune would be more powerful than both of them because of the stronger shell that Neptune would possess, however it had been deliberately crafted so that Neptune, one of the more placid of their race, would have the stronger shell. Inanna exited the Deeper Well and retrieved another body.

**Summers' Base Camp – Sunnydale, California. **

They were all packed into Buffy Summers living room and surrounding hallways to listen to the news reports coming from the TV. The military helicopter which had travelled over the base camp hours ago had dropped a large amount of equipment, complete with instructions. One of the pieces of equipment was a military grade satellite dish which they had hooked up to the TV and used to pick up a news station which was still broadcasting. What they were hearing wasn't looking too good.

"Dire times today as the Japanese and French governments both used nuclear weapons on at least one of their cities in order to attempt to curb the threat of these 'vampires'. Both governments have stated that their intelligence showed that the cities were almost completely overrun with demons and vampires and that any civilians within the cities would not have suffered. That puts the total number of cities to receive nuclear blasts to five now, including Liverpool, England; LaBelle, France; Nakasaki, Japan; Frankfurt, Germany; and Edmonton, England. Meanwhile, air strikes have continuted in Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, New York, Seattle and Fresno today as the military attempts a major push against the sub-terrestrials in the area..." Xander was beginning to wish that they didn't receive the communication equipment. It was better if they didn't know what was going on in the outside world, because then they wouldn't realise how bad it really was.

**Somewhere beneath Sunnydale.**

As her senses began to come back to her body, she could hear the Earth singing to her softly, taking care of her, nurturing her. Slowly, energy returned back to her body from its intended period of rest. As she began to wake, she could feel tendrils of blackness spreading throughout the earth, feeling and reaching out for something. She hadn't even fully returned to consciousness and she could feel them. They were going throughout the entire planet, creating a network of energy beyond anything she'd ever known. Somewhere deep in her mind, she knew that she needed to get out of her current location: that she needed to wake up and get out of there, as she was buried within the earth that these tendrils were spreading through. Willow had been using the energy of the Earth to revive her body and replenish the energy she expended, however it dawned on her unconscious mind that she could no longer do that; she had been lucky that the tendrils of blackness spreading through the earth had not found her yet. If they had, she would have surely died, or something worse could have happened to her. Her unconscious mind forced her back to consciousness, awaking her body in an instant.

Willow awoke with a large startle, and immediately, she panicked. There was blackness all around her, and she could feel like she was confined in a tight space, a box perhaps. She immediately started to panic and feel around with her hands and her feet, however it only eluded her to her predicament, there wasn't very much space where she was. It was only after a few moments that her plan and come back to her, that she had etched out a cavity in the Earth and safeguarded it as a place for her to recover. She now knew that she had been safe within her cavity, however she still felt very drained but she knew that it would take a while to get back to her proper state. Her plan had only been to recover her body to working order, not perfect working order. As she began to ground her mind and prepare to move herself out of the cavity. It was then that she sensed it, tendrils of blackness sweeping through the earth surrounding her, coming for her. She didn't have time to work out what they were, but Willow knew that she had woken up just in time. With that, she teleported herself out of her cavity to the surface above her.

**The Deeper Well**

Inanna stared at the sarcophagus in front of her in shock. She knew that this may happen, but had never expected it. Her sister, whom she had traversed through the many worlds for millennia, was dead. Illyria's attempt at resurrecting her had failed, killing both the mortal body and the Old One, both of them lost forever. The other four mortal bodies which they had used in resurrection so far were lying on top of their respective sarcophagi, the Old Ones inside hollowing out the shells and making their residence. It would be soon that they would awake, but the last time Inanna had moved outside The Deeper Well to retrieve a body, she could sense that the agents of The First were getting nearer, and they had only resurrected four out of hundreds. It was lucky for both Illyria and Inanna that the resurrection had not failed with the Slayer's body, killing it. Neptune was successfully being resurrected within the Hellmouth Slayer's body, forming a powerful ally or nemesis; it was yet to be foretold.

Inanna was experiencing sensations she had not felt before. She knew that it was of the human shell, that it was something they called an emotion. Already the human shell was beginning to erode at her being, and she knew that there was no way to change her shell. The feeling was weakening her, making her grieve for her lost sister, distracting her from her task before her.

"…Inanna," she heard Illyria saying to her. It occurred to her that she had been that indeed, distracted. "Do not let the human shell's influence extend beyond the physical limitations of it's body. We need to start again on another and revive as many as we can," Illyria said to her. Inanna snapped out of her daze and looked at Illyria, knowing what needed to be done. She would go outside and retrieve all of the human bodies before the armies of The First arrived.

Inanna walked out of the Deeper Well, and as soon as she exited, she sensed a presence in the woods in front of her. She moved in front of the pile of bodies which they had gathered; fifteen remaining. She stood, watching the wooded area in front of her. After a few moments, a figure in a black cape emerged, seeming to float above the ground. A number of other figures emerged from the woods after it, mostly demons, but a few humans and bringers mixed through the group. Inanna looked to the lead figure, knowing what it was, a Syopher. She could not believe that these pestilent beings were still in existence. It approached her at great speed, and Inanna moved to hit it in the head. Her hand hit nothing but empty air. Not used to dealing with the Syophers on the individual mortal level, she realised that they were extremely fast. Inanna turned around to face it, and memories started flooding her mind without her command, creating visions of her dead sister of millennia. Before Inanna knew what had happened, the Syopher had somehow sunken it's knife into her body, through her seemingly impenetrable skin. She staggered backwards, only to have another knife plunged into her back. The Syophers were a dangerous creature, and, as she had just learned, they were capable of harming her. She controlled the images in her head, and she was surprised to find that once she had done that, they enacted a ferocity within her towards the agents of The First as she had never experienced. It was because of the approaching agents of The First that they had sped through the resurrection process; it was because they sped that the resurrection of her sister had failed; these agents of The First would know bloodshed like they had never seen. She knew that these experiences which she was now feeing were because of her shell, and she knew that the small group of vampires and demons in front of her was dead. With lightning speed and precision, she surged forward and grabbed the head of the Syopher in front of her and snapped its neck. She then ducked below the blow that the other Syopher was attempting to deliver, and broke its bones while letting out a ferocious yell. Blood dripped down her arms as she turned to face the group of mortal beings in front of her.

* * *

Next chapter - Awakening part 2

After that - Chapter 48 - Aftermath (1/2 way complete so far).

Have a good one.


	50. Chapter 47 Awakening Part 2

**Authors Notes: **I got an awesome story arc coming up soon. I had to do a 2 week uni course, and forgot what was mostly to occur in this chapter, but I've adjusted accordingly. New and cooler stuff will be following.

Thanks QueenBoadicea for following this story and leaving plenty of reviews, they're much appreciated.

* * *

Chapter 47 Awakening Part 2 

_The breeze blew gently against her skin, creating an ambient sound of trees rustling in the distance, past the field in which she was standing in. Tara recognised this place, it had been her home since she was little, before she moved to Sunnydale. She was standing in a paddock, in front of a barbed wire fence separating the paddock from the homestead. To her right was a small vegetated creek that ran through the property, while to her left, a large mountain dominated the view in the immediate distance. Her property extended to the foothills of the mountain; to the borders of the National Park. In the distance on top of a small mound she could see a number of cattle which were grazing. The sky overhead was clear of all clouds, and the sun shone down brightly. Tara closed her eyes and just took in the sensations around her, creating good memories, before things had taken a turn for the worse in her home life. When her mother used to take her into the National Park and show her the secrets of the world. Tara could almost hear her mothers' voice emanating from the other side of the field, coming from the National Park. Tara listened closer, and to her surprise, she wasn't imagining the sounds coming to her ears, like whispers on the wind. She could definitely hear something, but she could not make out the words or the voice. _

_Suddenly, in a moment, the image of her mother's face appeared in front of her, blocking out all other sights. Tara could not believe how lifelike it appeared. She reached out with her hand to touch her mother, but before that could happen, her mother spoke to her;_

"_You have a destiny Tara," she said, startling Tara and making her withdraw her hand. Immediately Tara thought of what was happening in the world, all the destruction and chaos occurring because of The First. She thought about her and her friends' attempts to stop it. "Your destiny lies on a different path than theirs," her mother said to her. _

"_But…" Tara tried to start before she was interrupted,_

"_You were brought back for a reason."_

Tara shot up out of bed, panting and covered with sweat. She could feel where the bed sheets were soaked. It took her a while to calm herself down and realise where she was, that she was not back at their family's property, but rather in a room of crowded girls sleeping on the floor in Buffy Summers' house. She found most of her dream had been refreshing, it was nice to get memories of before she passed away, to let her mind acknowledge the fact that she wasn't a freak, and that the images going through her head were real. It had been mightily disorientating after she had come back, but now she was finding comfort and guidance from Willow and Cordelia, both whom had disappeared. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping for, she had only meant to take a short rest and lie down on the bed, and it was obvious that many others had decided to do the same. Tara quickly got up and started to head downstairs, when she heard voices, specifically, Buffy's from her vantage point half way down the staircase.

"I just don't know how we can deal with this situation on the whole," Buffy said. Tara could hear a reply.

"Me either Buffy, and maybe it's just too big for just us to deal with," Giles replied. "Maybe it's up to others, with more pull and influence to handle it, and maybe we'll just play a part," Giles stated.

"I mean, we're the experts, we're the ones who are meant to stop this," Buffy started before Giles interrupted.

"We can't do everything Buffy," Giles replied. There was a long silence before Tara heard Buffy reply,

"We're the experts. The ones fighting, the Government and the average citizen, aren't," Buffy started. "Maybe we need to start teaching them some things," Buffy said. "Send a group to Los Angeles to get in contact with Riley or whoever dropped those supplies," Buffy started. Tara could hear a few noises of recognition and acknowledgement come from Giles before there was a long silence. "We need to find Willow," Buffy stated, breaking the silence.

"Yes we do," Giles replied. "We'd be a lot safer with her around."

"I was thinking about getting a small group and going out again to look for her," Buffy said.

"What about Tara, she'd want to go," Giles replied.

"She needs her rest," Buffy simply stated. It was at that, that Tara made her presence known and walked down the rest of the stairs.

"I'll go," Tara stated. Just after Tara had finished saying the words, there was a sudden eruption of noise from outside, and from what Tara could tell, a large commotion. It sounded like a large number of people were milling around outside, but the strange thing was that it appeared from no where. Immediately they all moved to the window to look outside, but they weren't prepared for what they witnessed. Outside the barrier were literally hundreds of demons, just standing there and milling about, not really doing anything apart from being gathered in a large crowd. Tara sensed movement out of the corner of her eye and saw that Buffy and Giles were moving to the front door, and she followed closely behind.

As she emerged into the front yard of the Summers' residence, she could see the enormity of the demon population in front of them. She looked to the side to see others of their group coming out of the adjoining houses with weapons, prepared to fight. Tara glanced at a number of demons moving aside to allow a figure push through them, moving to the front. Faith walked up beside Tara, carrying a couple of swords which she threw to Giles and Buffy, while taking a defensive stance next to Tara. As the figure emerged from the crowd of demons however, everyone around her gasped.

"Anya?" Buffy and Giles exclaimed surprised. Tara could only remember the name of Anya, and could remember her face, but nothing else about her. The person, or demon, standing in front of her, was pretty much a stranger. Tara could see another figure pushing itself through the crowd, and was startled to see that it was Cordelia.

"Buffy, Giles, Faith, Tara," Anya said to them from the other side of the barrier, civilly. "May I present to you, demons willing to fight for our cause," Anya stated while waving a hand over the large crowd of demons standing outside the barrier. Tara looked over the crowd in detail for the first time, and it appeared that there were at least a hundred demons standing in front of them.

"And what exactly is our cause?" Giles queried Anya.

"To prevent The First from destroying the world as we know it," Anya replied.

"We like the world the way it is now, it works to our advantage," Tara saw a demon say who had stepped up beside Anya. "We like the world that humans' have set-up. If The First wins, that world would stop existing and we'd most likely be hunted down and killed," the demon elaborated after a few minutes.

"Why should we believe you? Any of you?" Buffy queried the demon, then looked at Anya. "What evidence do we have?"

"You have me," Cordelia replied. "I helped Anya do this; I helped her gather these demons together to fight against The First. You know that I wouldn't gather an army of demons to use against you," Cordelia explained. "I helped Anya evaluate each of these demons, they're who they say they are, and they're here to help." Tara saw Buffy nod a few times taking it in while she looked over the hoard of demons standing in front of them. Tara also cast her gaze over the crowd, noticing for the first time that many of the demons appeared human, like Anya did. More memories of Anya drifted back to Tara, the most prominent being her love of money and working in the Magic Shop. It was then that Tara remembered, she used to be a vengeance demon. She put the pieces together and worked out that something must have happened for Anya to revert back to a vengeance demon; maybe the arrival of The First's forces in this dimension and the official start of this whole battle did it.

"Even if we believe you, you can't come in here," Buffy indicated, pointing to the invisible line on the ground indicating the barrier protecting them from the outside world. "Demons can't come in, and we don't have enough room, let alone resources, to supply you all," Buffy replied.

"We'd already thought of that," Anya replied. "Cordelia told me about Samantha and Montague's ability to create medallions which will hide the presence of an individual from The First's reach," Anya stated. "We'll need them to get started straight away. As each demon gets a medallion, they'll find a home all around Sunnydale, some of them may even meld into The First's forces and act as spies," Anya replied.

"And in the mean time?" Giles asked.

"We'll have to make do," Anya replied. It was then that they heard the front door to the Summers' house crash open. Tara turned around to see that Oz had poked his head out the door and was looking at them all. He seemed a little caught for words as he took in the sight of the demons standing before him, but it only took a little while for him to regain his composure.

"Someone come quick…. It's Willow," he stated before turning around and rushing back inside the house.

**The Deeper Well**

As the sensation flowed throughout her body, fuelled on by her mind, she knew that she had never experienced anything like it: defeat. In her glory days, she had never often fought with the other Old Ones, preferring to stick to herself and those of her kind with a similar mindset, however when she was forced to fight, she always found herself victorious. Defeat was something she had never contemplated, having adequately protected herself from Illyria, Mars and Aeries, the most powerful of the Old Ones. Pain rippled through her body as another Syopher sunk its blade into her leg, sending her finally into the ground. She was still protecting the entrance to the Deeper Well, still between it and the rest of the army which had been brought on by The First. The common demons and humans which comprised the army were too fearful of approaching her, upon seeing what she had done to a number of Syophers which had attempted to take her on. It was then that the remaining Syophers which were within the army had decided to rush her en masse. Thirteen of them had surrounded Inanna, more than she could remember The First possessing in her time, however it was obvious that their numbers had increased dramatically with at least twenty on this island alone, having dispatched seven of them already. Inanna was struggling to keep them off, and she knew that her failure would be imminent and the army of The First would be free to enter the Deeper Well and destroy a large number of her brethren. They had her pinned to the ground now and were repeatedly inflicting injury on her with their weapons. It was then that she heard a thunderous clash, and felt a substantial weight taken off of her. Inanna struggled to her feet, feeling significantly weaker than she had before and witnessed a sight which forced the doubt from her mind. Standing in front of her was the body of the Slayer they had abducted from the Hellmouth, with a light blue tint on its eyes, hair and skin, holding a three pronged sceptre in its hand. It was Neptune.

"Have no fear Inanna, I come to your aid," Neptune said to her while moving to dispatch a Syopher.

"Be wary of the Syophers, their blades will penetrate your armour and skin and cause you harm," Inanna replied back.

"I shall cleave their heads from their bodies," Neptune replied. With Neptune taking the lead in the fight, Inanna moved behind him and retreated to the entrance to The Deeper Well in order to recover and take out any strays which got past Neptune.

* * *

Reviews much appreciated... next chapter - "Plan B"


	51. Chapter 48

**Authors Notes: **Hi readers. I haven't had much time to update recently, but good news! I'm almost finished my uni degree, and once that happens, I'll actually have some free time. The previous version of "Chapter 48" was shithouse and very forced, so I've replaced it with this one! 

As to the length that some people have commented on, this is leading towards the end. I've done everything I set out to do at the start, and I've got an ending in sight. Getting there's going to be relatively simple.

* * *

Chapter 48 - In Motion

_**Sunnydale - California**_

_Cassia could feel the build up of energy starting, and she knew that she wasn't far enough away. The Firsts' attack on the Base Camp right as they were getting ready to leave had made most of the people scatter in different directions. Cassia had lost contact with everyone and had been pursued by several demons. She had managed to distract the demons with her magick long enough to elude them, however she was now lost in a town which she barely knew, with no way to get out of it, while the spell they had created was reaching towards detonation, and there was absolutely nothing that she could do to stop it. Frantically, she began to look around for any means of escape: an intact car, a bicycle, or someone else that had scattered after the attack. Cassia ran through the streets, sweat dripping down her face, her heart racing a million miles per hour both because of the physical exertion and the anxiety which now faced her. If only she had stayed at the coven and not decided to help Willow and Giles, she'd be alright now. It was then that she remembered that the Coven had ended up coming to Sunnydale anyway, and both Samantha and Montague had fully supported Willow's idea and had been the main reasons why the plan got off the ground. Cassia knew that Willow and the others would have been able to pull it off, the sheer amount of power required anyway. Cassia could sense enough of Willow to know that she didn't have the mental discipline to construct it, but Samantha and Montague did and they literally made the plan possible. Now both the groups of people which had been an important part of her life would now probably be responsible for her death._

_Finally, she had reached the outskirts of the town, but she knew it was too late, and that she wasn't far enough away. She saw a bright flash out the corner of her eye, and knew that this was her time. A number of bright releases of energy were occurring in various places throughout the town, opening dimensional portals to the energy they'd all stored over the last couple of weeks. She closed her eyes, and in moments, she was deafened and blinded by the initial release of energy. Not even a second later, her body had been incinerated and she was no longer. _

Cassia shot up out of her sleeping bag on the floor and looked around, sweat absolutely pouring off her. She looked at her hands, then around the room, noticing that she was still in one of the houses of the Summers' Base Camp. Cassia glanced out the window and saw that it was still night time. She got up, but had to steady herself on the coffee table beside her. She looked at her hands again, and saw that they were trembling. She could feel a dark, dark, dark feeling within her stomach, and she knew that her dream had not been an ordinary dream. Cassia barely ever dreamed. It had only happened three times in her life before, but she knew that she had just seen the future; that she had just seen her death.

**Summers Base Camp – Sunnydale – California**

Willow was now lying down on the couch within Buffy's living room, with Giles, Buffy and Tara all sitting around her trying to pry some answers from her. It had been a couple of hours since she had found herself lying on the asphalt just outside the barrier to the Summers' base camp, and she was now awake between naps. She couldn't remember what had happened, but she knew the plan which she'd set out in her mind. Willow knew that she must have teleported herself to her 'safe place' to recuperate after attacking The First. She knew that she'd come out too early, as her whole body felt drained and she barely had enough energy to keep her legs stiff enough to stand up. Ever since she'd woken up, she could sense an unsettling presence within her, which was very anxious and wouldn't settle down. Something had happened to her within her 'safe spot' as she liked to call it now, and deep down, she knew what it was, but her mind wouldn't go there at right now.

"Why did you try to take on The First?" Giles asked her softly. Willow could hear the underpinned question behind that, and she knew that Giles wanted to know if she had been sane or not. Willow was too exhausted right now to answer, but tried to anyway, knowing that Giles, Buffy and Tara deserved to know why she'd done it.

"I wasn't trying to attack The First," Willow replied, "I was trying to distract it."

"Distract it? Why?" Giles asked, obviously surprised.

"So that I could close the Hellmouth," Willow replied after a couple of breaths. "I had to close it before it could summon more demons and vampires through it." Willow watched as everyone digested the information. Buffy and Tara were surprised, to say the least, however the look on Giles' face was a mixture of pure astonishment and disbelief. She guessed that Giles had the most understanding of what it would take to close the Hellmouth on your own.

"Do you know if you succeeded?" Giles asked. Willow only shook her head in reply.

"I can't really remember too much about the end of the battle," Willow said while shaking her head in reply. She knew that she'd done something bad, but she couldn't remember. Willow guessed that as her strength returned, so would her memory, however she knew that part of her didn't want to remember the end of the battle. She had learned from her 'experience' with Warren that it was sometimes better if you couldn't remember some things.

**Basement – Summers Residence – Summers' Base Camp – Sunnydale California**

Xander looked down at the vampire chained up in front of them. There wasn't really much that they could do with her anymore, as both he, Wesley and Gunn believed that she'd told them all she knew. Personally, Xander didn't have any dealings with Wolfram and Hart, but from what Wesley and Gunn had told him, they were more involved in this apocalypse than anyone had known about before. It also appeared that they were staying back and manoeuvring Angelus from a distance, so that he wouldn't catch on and turn against them. This presented a serious problem.

"So, what are we going to do about all this?" Xander asked Wesley

"I don't know. We need to deal with the Angelus situation in Los Angeles as well as keep a very strong presence here," Wesley replied.

"There's just not enough man power to go around," Gunn added. Xander thought about the recent influx of people thanks to Willow's spell. "Experienced manpower," Gunn added after Xander guessed that his thoughts were showing on his face.

"We could dust her," Wesley said, referring to Darla. There was silence as all three considered the option.

"We could turn her," Xander suggested. Wesley and Gunn both looked at him like he had just gone a bit crazy. "I mean, we could turn her onto our side and then send her back to LA," Xander said.

".. and have someone inside Wolfram and Hart," Wesley finished. "She could tell us their movements, and Angelus's movements as well."

"Be worthwhile getting that information," Gunn said. "We could just send a small group to LA then to slow down Wolfram and Hart's plans if we knew what they were up to. Wouldn't have to cover the entire city."

"Yes, but how would we turn her to our side?" Wesley asked both of them. There was a brief silence as everyone stopped their thoughts, realising that turning Darla was a major obstacle in the way of their plans. Xander was the first to speak,

"Connor."

**Outside the Summers' Base Camp – Sunnydale – California**

Faith was escorting a number of demons who had just received their charm hiding them from The First's presence from Samantha and Montague. These three looked like humans, but Faith was guessing that they were vengeance demons.

"So, you're a Vampire Slayer hey?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, that's me," Faith replied. "Your house is just up here. It's still intact, and it's close by," Faith added.

"Which one are you? Buffy or Faith?" another of them asked.

"Faith," Faith simply replied.

"Ooh, that's interesting," the first vengeance demon replied.

"Why?" Faith asked.

"I thought you'd be more badass," it replied.

"_Definitely vengeance demons,"_ Faith thought to herself. It had been an unexpected curveball which Anya had thrown at them, returning with a hoarde full of demons which were willing to fight on their side. Faith knew that she'd have to get used to working with some of the demons, but she hoped that they'd come through in the end. This trio which she was escorting now didn't seem like much of a threat, but she knew that some of the demons might turn on them at one point. After all, it would make sense from The First's perspective to plant some demons within this army. Faith knew that she'd have to keep an eye on the demons and make that any demons which were working for The First were caught. Especially the vengeance demons.

**Outside the Deeper Well**

Inanna had been fighting off the stragglers which had gotten past Neptune, however she hadn't been doing much recently as three more of the resurrected Old Ones had risen. Illyria had run out of bodies to use to resurrect more Old Ones, and Inanna's job was now to recover the almost dead bodies of humans which partially made up The First's army. So far, they had only gotten one through, as the human body was a nimble creation and the resurrected Old Ones guarding the entrance were too powerful. In the heat of the battle, they delivered killing blows without thought, to move onto the next agent of The First attempting to storm the entrance to the Deeper Well. Inanna knew that they had failed their primary objective; to use the body of the Slayer recovered from Sunnydale to resurrect a more powerful Old One who would attempt to take on The First. Their first resurrection had failed, killing the Old One and the mortal body along with it. In the time since the original human bodies had been used for resurrection, they had only obtained one useable human body, but yet hundreds of Old Ones remained, awaiting resurrection. They couldn't possibly use a demon's body, as then the resurrected Old One would be too powerful and try to exterminate the rest of them. Both her and Illyria needed to find a solution before The First's armies broke through into the Deeper Well, or that the army was exterminated.

**Beneath Los Angeles - California**

The underground tunnel system which had been built by Angelus's followers was now finally paying off. The air force had began bombing sections of the city which it knew were abandoned; the parts that Angelus's followers had been using as their above ground bases. Ever since the beginning of this war, the tunnels had been getting built. While the tunnel network was only small, it covered a large area, allowing Angelus and his followers enough time to get out of harms way before the bombing began. Best of all, the Initiative's troops hadn't found any of the entrances as of yet.


End file.
